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Suspended in a cage affair one is lowered to the lighter 



The SoutHland of 
NortK America 

R^ambles and Observations in 

Central America d\irin^ tHe 

Year 1912 



By 

George Palmer Putnam 



With 96 Illustrations from Photographs 
by the Author, and a Map 



G. P. P\itnam*s Sons 

Ne"w YorK and London 

XL\iC 1knfc?;erbocfter press 
1913 



ku- 



Copyright. 1913 

BY 

GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM 



Ttbe Iftnicfterbocfter ipresB, IRew J^orft 



4" ; 
©CU.'M6684 






THIS SOUVENIR OF A DELIGHTFTX TROPICAL TRIP 

IS DEDICATED 

TO THE BEST OF TRAVEL PARTNERS 

D. B. P. 

"WHO SHARED ITS MAKING 




PREFACE 

O equip a modest volume of travel 
sketches with a preface is, perhaps, 
a sin against proportion. **But 
a preface is more than an author 
can resist, for it is the reward of his labors. When 
the foimdation stone is laid, the architect appears 
with his plans, and struts for an hour before the 
public eye. So with the writer of this preface ; he 
may have never a word to say, but he must show 
himself for a moment in the portico, hat in hand, 
and with an urbane demeanor. " 

Such is the quaint prefatory paragraph to 
Stevenson's delightful Inland Voyage. 

For this little book of voyages, which are both 
inland and maritime, there is small need of more 
that a formal bow to the public, made with the 
fond hope that there actually may be found an 
audience to which to make greeting. Such as it 
is, then, let this preface be a hearty invitation to 



vi PREFACE 

proceed further. Should the succeeding pages 
arouse an added interest in the territory they 
concern, and something more of an understanding 
of it, and, above all, a realization of the fact that 
at our very door lies an almost untouched treasure- 
land of fascinating possibility, they will have 
served their purpose. 

G. P. P. 

Bend, Oregon, 

March 15, 19 13. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. Panama, the Gateway to Central 
America 



II. Introducing Costa Rica 

III. The Land of Beautiful Views 

IV. Costa Rica's Capital 
V. Banana Land . 

VI. Back in San Jos6 . 

VII. The Ocean Highway 

VIII. Nicaragua and Honduras 

IX. Enter Salvador 

X. San Salvador . 

XI. El Dorado 

XII. Salvadorian Sidelights 

XIII. Into Guatemala 

XIV. Tropic Land . 
XV. Guatemalan Glimpses 

XVI. The Capital City . 



I 

TO 

39 

62 

88 

119 

134 
158 
172 

195 
216 
227 
248 
270 
292 
314 



viii CONTENTS 



XVII . Ruins and a Painting . . . 336 

XVIII . Antigua 357 

XIX. To THE Top of Central America . 379 

XX. Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrow 400 

Appendix A. — Statistical Information Con- 
cerning THE Central American Countries 413 

Appendix B. — The Monroe Doctrine . 421 

Appendix C. — Bibliography . . . 424 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

" Suspended in a Cage Affair One is Lowered to the 

Lighter." {See page 250) . . . Frontispiece / 
Panama, the Key to Central AiyiERicA . . . 2 '^ 

Jamaicans Loading Bananas by Hand at Limon, a 
Method now Replaced by Continuous Belt 

Loaders . 6 '/ 

"They had never Gazed upon the Face of a Mur- 
derer, Pressed through the Ground-Level Open- 
ing OF HIS Filthy, Dripping Dungeon." An 
Actual Photograph Taken in Chiriqui Prison, 
Panama . . . . . 6 ^ 

In the Shadow of the Cathedral, Panama . . . 8 

Landing in a Lighter in Central America . . .12 

Puntarenas Has "an Extraordinary Out-of-Place 

Church which Looks as if it might have been 

Plucked from Some Country Parish in Old 

England" ........ 12 

A Slight Southern Exposure. Talamanca Indians, 

Costa Rica . . . . . . . 16 "' 

On an Intimate Footing with a Cocoanut Palm . 22 ^ 
A more Capable Institution than a Cactus Fence it 

WOULD BE Difficult to Contrive . . . . 40 1/ 

Typical of the Southland. Taboga Island, Bay of 

Panama . . . . . . . . 40V'' 

"Instances Abound of the Destructive Combination — 
Hills, Rain, and Clay on the Railroad from San 
Jos]& TO Limon " ....... 42 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Tehuantepec Woman Making Tortillas. "A Tor- 
tilla Is a Soggy Pancake Affair" 

Unloading Coffee. "The Carts of Costa Rica Are 
Unique" 

Coffee-Drying Patios on the Outskirts of San Jos6 
DE Costa Rica ....... 

A Contrast in San Jos6 — Modern Lighting ant) Archaic 
Transportation ....... 

The Principal Street of Costa Rica's Capital . 

A Plaza of San Jose 

"More Characteristic of Guatemala than of Costa 
Rica. The Stocks in Rural Costa Rica" 

"The Box-Car Trains, with Crews of Loaders, Pick up 
the Bunches which have been Piled beside the 
Track 

"Horseless Carriages" IN Central America 

Superintendent Fletcher and the Motor Car from 
^*hich we Vievv^d the Zent Banana Farms 

A Typical Tropical Vista 

In the Midst of A "Banana Walk" . . . . 

From the Window of the San Jose Hotel we Saw the 
Cathedral Spires across Red-Tiled Roofs 

In Managua, Capital of Nicaragua. Presidential 
Offices on Right ...... 

Jamaicans Cutting the Bunches. The Adjoining 
Plants will Replace the Stalk Cut, Producing 
Bunches in Rotation . . . . 

"The Scavengers Are the Vlt^tures, Great Black 
Birds with the Sepulchral Appearance of Pro 
fessional Mourners " 

At Prayer in a Guatemalan Church . 

"In Washington there Is a Beautiful Marble Build 
iNG. THE Home of the Pan-American Union" 



50 

54 • 

58 

68 ^' 

68 

72 

80 '' 

106 
no 

no 
112 
116 

126 

126 ^ 

128 ' 



128 



Y 



130 
134^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI 



y 



s/ 



A Glimpse of the Guatemala Hinterland. "Beyond 
THE Gateway Lies a Paradise. All the Best of 
Central America is Hidden in the Highland 
Regions" . . . . . , 140 

CoRiNTO, Nicaragua, Boasts the Rare Luxury of a 

Wharf 148 

Along the Ocean Highway of Central America . 148 1/ 

Not a Turkish Mosque, but a Scene in Sonsonate, 

Salvador ... . . . . . 180 ^ 

Outside the "Merc ado," San Salvador . . . 182 "^ 

In Duenas Plaza, San Salvador — Statuary, the Ever- 
Present Band-Stand, and the Ragamuffins who 
Later Became A Pest 182 

*'In Parks and Statuary Salvador is Delightfully 

Equipped" 184 ^ 

"The National Palace Is the Show Building of the 

City." Hotel Nuevo Mondo in Background . 184 

The Streets are more Popular than the Sidewalks . 186 

A Street in San Salvador 186 

A "Delivery Waggon," Central America . . . 188^' 

An Indlan Type, not Characteristic of Spanish Beauty 192 ^/ 

"The Street- Cleaning Department Performs upon 
THE Cobbles in a Manner that would Do Credit 
to a Dutch Housewife " 192 

Cathedral at San Salvador . . . . . 196 ^/ 

A Highland Coffee "Finca," with Drying Patios , 232 

The Coffee Berry at Close Range .... 234 

Coffee in Bloom . . . . . . . 236 

" Nearly Every Landing is Made through the Medium 

OF Lighters" 250 

One of the Few Fine Roads in Salvador . . . 250 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Barbed Wire for Honduras. Primitive Lightering 

Method at Amapala ...... 252 

Amapala, Honduras ....... 252 

How Freight is Handled in the Southland . . 254 

"The Volcano Agua Dominates Every Guatemalan 

View" 258 

"The Naked Fisherman Fits into the Bright Picture 

Admirably" ....... 260 

The Peaks of Acatenango and Fuego, with Antigua in 

the Foreground ....... 260 

Indians on the Trail 262 

San Jos6's Feminine Bathers, Chiefly Clad in Blan- 
kets, Confine their Activities to Pouring Water 
on Each Other with a Basin .... 262 

Indian Woman Vending " DuLCEs " AT Palin . . 280 
A Guatemalan Indian Woman with the Ever-Present 

Baby ......... 280 

"Cargadors," Father and Son, Carrying Pottery . 284 
Having Wriggled into her Harness, this Woman is 
Getting to her Feet with her Great Load of 
Pottery ........ 284 

A Guatemalan Mother ...... 286 

Soldiers of Guatemala 286 

"On the Shores of Lake Amatitlan One may See 
Women Washing Clothes in Hot Springs that 
Boil UP Conveniently " ..... 288 

"I Snapped Two Worthies in Action, but did not Man- 
age TO Get it until they were 'Breaking away'" 288 
In the Minerva Temple, Guatemala City . . . 298 

The Guatemalan Women Balance Burdens on their 

Heads 298 

"Cargadors" IN THE City Streets .... 316 



/ 



./ 



ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 



PAGB 

Church of El Carmen, Guatemala City . . . 316'^ 

The Unique Concrete Relief Map of Guatemala . 320^^ 

The Teatro Colon, Guatemala's National Theatre 320 

A Street in Guatemala City 324 / 

When the Rent is not Paid a Body is Thrown out 

from the Graveyard ...... 324 "^ 

Manuel Estrada Cabrera Temple of Minerva, Guate- 
mala ......... 328 

Bull-Baiting at Guardia Viejo ..... 328 

A Relic of Mayan Art, Quirigua .... 344 

A View of the Rain- Washed Guatemalan Countryside 344 

Quarters of Banana Men at Quirigua . . . 358 

Antigua Is a Spectre of Former Magnificence . . 358 
The View of Antigua and the Mountain Agua from 

the Hotel Window 366 

An Indian Woman of Antigua Shelling Corn . . 368 
"In the Ruins of La Conception Cows Graze where 

' Padres ' were Wont to Ponder " . . . . 368 
"A Candle Factory Occupies the Shadowed Depths 

of what Was once a Chapel." .... 370 ' 

One of the Monuments among the Ruins at Quirigua 370 ^ 

At Work in a Coffee Patio . . . . . 372 '' 

Praying at the Miracle-Working Shrine of San 

Francisco ........ 372 

A Watering and Washing Place at a Guatemalan 

Wayside ........ 374 

Guatemala Is the Land of the Public Washtub . 376 ' 

Children and Clothes are Washed Indiscriminately 376^ 

"We Ambled along Broad and Shaded Avenues, Bor- 
dered by 'Cafetels,' or Coffee Orchards" . . 382^'' 

An Indian Woman of the Road 386 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

On THE Trail TO La Solid AD 386 

On the Summit of Tres Hermanas, with Acatenango 

AND ITS Crater in the Background . . . 392 '"' 
At the Top of Central America. TSe Author on the 

Summit of Acatenango ..... 398 "^ 

Indians Masked and Costumed at a "Fiesta" . . 398 ^ 

Map of Central America At End ^ 

The author is indebted to Mr. George A. Bucklin for his courte- 
ous permission to use several of his photographs on Guatemala. 



The So\jithland of NortK America 



The Southland of North America 



CHAPTER I 

Panama* Gate-way to Central 
A.xnerica 




^^^^^ANAMA is the key to Central Amer- 
ica. It is that not only in a geo- 
graphic sense; the construction of 
the Panama Canal is doing more 
than has been done in four centuries to awaken 
that dormant territory and untangle its political 
and economic snarls. So far as the United 
States is concerned, the Canal practically means 
the rediscovery of Central America; it has fo- 
cussed national attention southward, arousing a 
sudden surprised realisation that between us and 
our new transcontinental waterway lies a little- 
known land of glowing possibilities, tmique prob- 
lems, and grave responsibilities. 

Central America is all that, and more. It is, 



2 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

especially, a delightful pasture new, wherein the 
traveller, who is equipped with a moderately 
healthy liver, a passable temper, and an inquisitive 
disposition, may browse with peculiar satisfaction. 
For those blessed with these triple characteristics, 
the experience is recommended, while it may 
safely be indulged in even should two of the three 
be lacking, for after all, a superabundance of the 
last named, combined generously with enthusiasm, 
will offset other shortcomings. 

While Panama is the gateway to Central 
America to-day, and has been for centuries, 
to-morrow its Canal will more than ever be the 
"Open Sesame" of the west coast, both north 
and south. There is no doubt that after 19 15, a 
great tourist travel will filter through the Isthmus, 
as hitherto passers have made their way across 
it, in one manner and another, since Balboa first 
discovered to what a puny neck of land the great 
western continents here narrow, a discovery made 
almost exactly four hundred years before the official 
opening of the big ditch that will transform this 
historic isthmus into an equally historic strait. 

From the Canal, these sight seekers of to-morrow 
will scatter to the four comers of the earth. Many 



PANAMA— THE GATEWAY 



will descend upon South America, at last opened 
up to easy access; others will take advantage of 
the new trans-Pacific routes; and still others will 
flock northward to our own Pacific States. 

Sixty years ago the "Panama route" was an 
accepted fact in transcontinental travel. Built 
in the fifties, the railroad across the Isthmus 
carried thousands of Easterners from one ocean to 
the other during the half-dozen years of gold-mad 
scramble to the Californian El Doradoes. Since 
then, broadly speaking, the "Panama route," 
has been almost a negligible quantity, so far as 
North American transcontinental travel is con- 
cerned, thanks to the construction of the railroads 
and the comparative delays and inconveniences 
of the Isthmian journey. 

But upon the completion of the Canal the 
"Panama route" from the Eastern States, and 
from Europe, to the North Pacific slope, will 
come into its own again and come to stay. It will 
open the way for a new transcontinental trip, and 
an amazingly delightful one it will be. Even 
to-day, with no canal, and crude transportation 
methods, it is that. And to-day and to-morrow 
the chief delight of it lies, and will remain, in the 



4 SOUTHLAND OF NOR TH AMERICA 

fact that it opens the way to an acquaintance 
Vv^ith the Central American Republics. To see 
something of these, and of this new transcontinen- 
tal trip, was the reason, then, that in November of 
191 1 we came one night to the Tivoli Hotel at 
Ancon, on the Canal Zone, headed for Central 
America, like the bear that w^ent over the mountain, 
"to see what we could see. " 

There could be no better prelude to Central 
America than a month on the Isthmus. Indeed, 
a Panamanian month weU spent — and ''seeing 
Panama" is so absurdly easy that it would be 
hard to spend it otherwise — can in itself include 
enough and to spare to equip the m.ost avaricious 
writer with amm.unition for a book. However, 
Panama is a story in itself, and one whose varie- 
gated chapters are told in so many volumes that 
to add further information and misinformation to 
the vast amount already in print would seem like 
overburdening an amply afflicted public. So, with 
3^0 ur permission, we shall linger on the Isthmus 
only long enough to get acclimated. 

If you ever follow in our footsteps, as I hope you 
may, take a word of advice: Don't for a miinute 
imagine that the Canal, with its arm}', its steam 



PANAMA—THE GATEWAY 



shovels, locks, cuts, yardage statistics, and sani- 
tation marvels is the beginning and the end of 
Panama. It is n't. It 's a world in itself, but 
it is n't all of Panama. 

''They don't know a thing about the country — 
not an idea that there 's a particle worth seeing 
outside of the- blooming Canal, " was the way 
one bronze-faced white-clad fellow put it. He 
knew his Panama pretty thoroughly, and enter- 
tained a supreme contempt for his fellows in the 
Canal army who never looked for interest beyond 
their work. ''It 's as if you went to New York 
and took in Broadway and the Brooklyn bridge, 
and then quit," he added. 

Of course, in a month you can't begin to see all 
there is of Panama worth seeing and studying, 
nor in that time can you become even tolerably 
intimate with the details of the big job, which is 
undoubtedly the most fascinating bit of colossal 
human accomplishment ever crowded into a small 
scope — of square miles and of years. 

The family of one high official we met on the 
Zone had never been to the ruins of Old Panama. 
They lived six miles from them! 

Likewise, they had never seen Puerto Bello, 



6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the burial-place of Drake, saturated with historic 
interest and present-day picturesqueness ; they 
had never climbed Ancon Hill and viewed the 
Isthmian world's highway almost from ocean to 
ocean ; they had never ventured through the gory, 
smelly, utterly characteristic market of Panama 
City, or bargained for fish and fruit on the beach 
beside the sea-wall, when the ragged little boats 
crowd in from the infinitely blue bay of an early 
morning and the strand becomes a rich replica, in 
colour, action, and babelous tongues, of the famed 
barter places of the Eastern world ; they had never 
gained admission to Chiriqui prison, and gazed 
upon the face of a murderer, pressed through the 
ground-level opening of his filthy, dripping dun- 
geon, w^herein he is to live until a kindly death 
releases him; they had never staked a dollar for a 
ticket in the national lottery, the paltry price of a 
delicious thrill when the drawings are made in the 
Bishop's Palace near church time; they had never 
walked of an evening about the plaza, where the 
band played, rubbing shoulders with the gallantry 
and the worthlessness of five continents; and — 
save the mark! — they had never desecrated the 
Sabbath by going to a cock-fight, where native 



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PANAMA— THE GATEWAY 



life is seen with the lid of polite restraint completely 
off, and wicked little birds whirl furiously at each 
other in an utterly depraved and cruel game of 
life and death. 

Not they! As nearly as possible they live as 
they might have lived in Hoboken. 

The moral is that when you go to Panama, try 
not to see the Canal alone, and its kindred monu- 
ments of American accomplishment, but also 
something of the rest of Panama, be it ever so 
little. For a healthy scramble of tropical im- 
pressions will be a far pleasanter souvenir of an 
Isthmian excursion than any chill statistical 
mental picture of the Canal could be. The latter 
you can get from guide- and other books. The 
former you must absorb for yourself. 

After a month or more of Panama, we boarded, 
one evening, the City of Sydney, a Pacific 
mailer of eminently respectable age, which, just 
at sunset time, slipped away from the swelter of 
the inner harbour of Balboa northward through the 
quiet waters of Panama Bay 

A sunset on Panama Bay is always an artistic 
event. Our particular one was a natural triumph 
that beggars description. Far inshore, above the 



8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

white roofs of the city, vagrant showers chased 
each other across the sky, cHnging close to the 
emerald hills. In the very west, slanting rays 
of sun filtered from beneath a cloud bank, above 
whose ragged outlines, themselves tinted with 
gorgeous golds and pinks and opalescent tints, the 
palest of fieckless blue extended to the zenith. 
The shore hills, where visible through the mists, 
were darkly green, and in the foreground of the 
broad picture the waters of the bay were painted 
in with as ample a variety of tone and shade as 
characterised the sky effects; nearby the sea was 
calm and infinitely blue, merging shoreward into 
greens, and here and there darkened with rich 
ultramarine patches, branded by haphazard 
breezes. Finally, the afterglow faded and night's 
purple cloak fell upon the waters, broken by the 
pin-point illuminations of the city and the over- 
head brilliants of the tropical sky, dazzlingly 
bright as only near equatorial stars can be. 

The mental aftermath of the sunset was in- 
terrupted by a chance hotel acquaintance, now 
become a fellow-traveller. 

"Central America for a pleasure trip?'' said he. 

We pled guilty, and drew him out, which was 




In the shadow of the Cathedral, Panama 



PANAMA— THE GATEWAY 



not difficult, for a pessimist always revels in his 
work. This one was supercilious in tone and 
dejected in appearance. He was a commercial 
traveller, a mixture of Jew and German and, pre- 
sumably, several other things. His dejection, he 
implied, was because he had been ''covering" 
Central America for seven seasons. 

''For pleasure, eh?" he continued. "Why, 
man, there 's no such thing down here. It 's 
all a damned sweaty grind or an everlasting loaf. 
The climate 's a fright. It makes your blood like 
water, a bit muddied with the quinine and dope 
pumped in to keep your spirits up. There 's 
nothing at all to see, and as for the people" — 
here a happy Americanism tided over his conver- 
sational difficulty — "why, they are the limit!'' 

And having ridded his dejected system of that 
cheering message he went elsewhere through the 
scented tropical twilight to spread the gospel of 
Central American melancholia. 

That was the beginning of a remarkably delight- 
ful journey. My adviser was simply one of the 
army of the blind who annually trot about the 
face of the good green earth, seeing nothing worth 
seeing, and appreciating nothing at all. 



CHAPTER II 




Introducing Costa Rica 

UNTARENAS. or Sandy Point, is 
the Pacific sea entrance to Costa 
Rica, the southernmost of the Cen- 
tral American RepubHcs. As north- 
and-south inland travel, at least across the 
borders of any of the countries, is practically a 
negligible quantity, thanks to the lack of roads, 
Costa Rica's two ports, Puntarenas on the west 
and Limon on the east, offer the only gateways 
to the interior highlands. And it is in this high 
hinterland that the true beauty of the truly beauti- 
ful land lies, as cool and healthful as the coastal 
plains are torrid and fever-irLfested. 

Two hot days of lazy sailing northward from 
Panama, often in sight of the verdant, low-lying 
shores, brought the Sydney to the port, which 
is nothing more than a roadstead. The ship 
anchored about a mile from the surf line. 

It was shortly after noon, which means two 
lo 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA ii 

things, on an average tropical day; the first, that 
the breeze was a much missed minus quantity; 
and the second, that Puntarenas was enjoying 
the early afternoon siesta, from which your Central 
Americano is not easily disttirbed, even by the 
arrival of the Pacific mail packet, an irregular 
occurrence of supreme importance at most of 
the ports. So we waited, while the oily swell ad- 
vanced upon the beach, there indolently curling 
over in a line of white foam beyond which the 
heat waves flickered up from the iron roofing of 
the pier and customs buildings with a discomfort- 
ing promise of even greater breathlessness ashore. 
In the course of time, there was a stir at the 
end of the spindle-shanked wharf, and a very 
official boat, with official flags and an officially 
leisurely crew put off to us. It was the port 
officers, the unescapable introduction to every 
southern seaboard country. Mind you, in dwell- 
ing upon the "officialness" of our Costa Rican 
introduction, in reality an apology is due the 
country. There is far less fuss and feathers, gold 
braid, and red tape, connected with a disembarka- 
tion in Costa Rica than in any of its sister lands, 
and far more of practical methods. 



12 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

The important member of the boarding party 
was the port doctor. Port doctors as a rule are 
the prime factors at a southern landing, but this 
one proved himself a doctor par excellence, and 
a hospitable host and a rarely interesting man to 
boot. Which opens the way for a word descrip- 
tive of Puntarenas, in toto. 

There are three notable things about the little 
port. The doctor, as may be suspected, is one 
of them. The other two are a saint and a consular 
agent; as almost any one knows, there are many 
dead saints and scores of dead-and-alive consular 
agents, but this refers to a live saint and a live 
agent, a double and notable phenomenon. The 
doctor is a Yankee of the straight New England 
cut, the saint a little Spanish lady who does a 
world of unheralded good, and the consular agent 
a racial blend peculiarly his own. His past is 
worthy of a Dumas, and his present often un- 
worthy of any one, but invariably witty and kind- 
hearted beyond belief. 

True, there are other appurtenances to Pun- 
tarenas, ranging from numberless naked babies 
to an extraordinarily out-of -place stone church, 
which looks for all the world as if it might have 




Landing in a lighter in Central America 




Puntarenas has "an extraordinary out-of-place church which looks as if 
it might have been plucked from some country parish in Old England " 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 



been plucked from a country parish in old England 
and unthinkingly dropped in this out-of-the-way 
port. Also, there is an attractive plaza place 
with gnarled trees, some of whose branches have 
actually grafted themselves upon the branches of 
neighbours. The bright flowers of the tiny park 
do much to redeem the otherwise sordidly fiat 
little town. But the truly important features of 
Puntarenas are included in the triple digest offered 
above. 

To return to the landing, and the port doctor, 
one- third of the social valuation of the port, as 
we assessed it. Before he left the small boat, we 
thought him a Spaniard, for his keen bronzed 
face would have graced any Castilian gathering, 
while the ease with which he handled the con- 
versational repartee that interchanged between 
his craft and the Sydney amply exercised his 
conversational abilities in the language of the 
country. But once he came up the ladder, with 
quick, crisp movement, none but the most un- 
observing could set him down for anything but 
a transplanted son of cooler climes. 

"Well, this is good luck!" was our hearty greet- 
ing as we were examined for all the ills which 



14 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

flesh may be heir to, by the doctor, whose name 
was Spencer Franklin, and whose New England 
birthplace, it developed, was separated from our 
own by a matter of but a few miles. So, of 
course, after preliminary greetings were over, we 
found a vast deal in common, and our own news 
budget of home events, though months old, was 
timely enough to one who had not seen the rocks 
and trees of Connecticut for five years. We were 
rowed ashore in a heavy long boat, our trunks 
piled pell-mell around us. The rowers were dark- 
skinned Spaniards, barefoot, and clad in cotton 
trousers and shirt; altogether, the landing might 
have been in a Mediterranean port. Reaching 
the spindle-shanked wharf that extends some two 
hundred feet beyond the surf line, we clambered 
up the slimy steps, our trunks, like the tail of 
Mary's lamb, trailing along behind us. 

At the wharf and elsewhere there was far less 
of militarism than we had expected. Indeed, 
aside from a handful of uniformed — scantily — 
custom-house officials, gold braid and buttons 
were notable for their absence. 

At the custom-house was faced the fundamen- 
tal lesson of Central American travel: a super- 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 



abundance, or even an abundance of baggage is to 
be avoided. Many trunks, or even few trunks, are 
a nuisance and an extravagance. If possible, 
fight shy of trunks altogether, on inland trips, 
and confine your wardrobe to large and portable 
bags, a good travel rule an3rwhere, and a parti- 
cularly good one south of Mexico. 

At Punt arenas, ^there is a tariff governing the 
transportation of baggage from the steamers, on 
the wharf, and about the town. Wonderful to 
relate, its provisions are actually followed. How- 
ever, that it is not the ''best tariff ever made" is 
indicated by the fact that when we were in Pim- 
tarenas the boatmen were petitioning the govern- 
ment for a "raise" in the particular schedule 
governing their activities ; which goes to show that 
we North Americans are not the only people with 
tariff troubles! 

The boatmen get one cent a kilo for bringing 
the baggage in from the ship, a hard row of half 
a mile or more. The landlubbers who tnmdle 
the trunks along the wharf have the better of it; 
their fee is two cents a kilo. Then there are 
further charges from the custom-house to the 
depot, all govemmentally regulated. Aside from 



i6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the fact that they are artists at the time-honoured 
short-change game, payment is simple. Our 
total disembarking charge, including custom- 
house fee, amounted to $8.io. If we had been 
baggage wise, which means baggage shy, it would 
have been half that amount. As it was, we left 
all luggage except an insignificant little steamer 
trunk in the care of the customs officials, and even 
that solitary piece proved excess baggage, as the 
railroad allows but forty kilos free. The average 
Central American has no baggage himself, and so 
sees no reason why foreigners should get free 
transportation for theirs. Which is reasonable 
enough, if inconvenient. 

Geographically, Puntarenas is a sandspit, with 
the town strung along it, parallel to the beach, 
with its several broad streets some quarter of a 
mile back from the ocean. Within the sandpoint 
is a wide shallow inlet, with mud flats unattractive 
to sight and smell, at low water, and a muddy 
yellow current when the tide is in. Much of the 
town juts out over these flats, while at one end 
are the piers from which is carried on the con- 
siderable traffic with the country at the upper, 
or northern, end of the Gulf of Nicoya, for Pim- 




A slight southern exposure. Talamanca Indians, Costa Rica 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 17 

tarenas is the only gateway for the receipt of 
supplies and the exportation of ore for an active 
mining district, operated by Americans. 

Nearly every building in the town is of one 
story. A very attractive plaza, or park place, is 
the sole item of beauty, excepting only the pic- 
turesque play a, or sea-wall, which straggles along 
the ocean front. And that is really no wall at 
all, but a rather dilapidated board-walk, with 
pretentious but somewhat battered concrete seats 
lining it, and an irregular row of gnarled uruca 
trees casting their shade for the most part where 
the benches are not, while the latter simmer 
endlessly in the sun. Back of the play a is the 
custom-house, and out from that runs a narrow 
gauge man-power railroad that extends to the 
end of the stubby wharf. Everything that is 
landed at Puntarenas passes over this tiny bit 
of track, loaded on diminutive flat cars pushed 
by natives. 

For us, Puntarenas resolved itself chiefly into 
Dr. Franklin. The doctor is lean, thin cheeked, 
and clean shaven, tall, straight, and spotlessly 
clean in person and raiment, the last characteristic 
alone being enough to make him notable in a 



1 8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

latitude where cleanliness, if it truly ranks close 
to godliness, speaks poorly for the popularity of 
the latter. His interests cover a broad field; 
primarily, he is a physician, and an enthusiastic 
one; next he seems to be a rover and something of 
an adventurer ; thirdly, he is a devotee of archaeo- 
logy. Incidentally, he is boss of Puntarenas — 
and it may be remarked that it takes an all-round 
man to boss a west coast port successftilly. 

The natives call him Doctor Arremangado, or 
"the doctor with his sleeves rolled up," and well 
he seemed to deserve the title, for the time of our 
brief visit was a succession of activities for him. 
Patients galore came and were treated, and a little 
work room was the scene of several operations, 
while no walk we took was free from interruption 
by some one who wished medical advice. 

Mrs. Franklin is a pleasant American lady, 
vitally interested in the success her husband is 
making. Their seven-year-old daughter is being 
brought up in Puntarenas, and whatever she 
may lose in the advantages that might be hers in 
northern schools she certainly is acquiring a 
delightful facility with the Spanish tongue. The 
rest of the shifting, household, when we arrived, 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 19 

was composed of a young Englishman, his wife 
and a recently arrived baby, all infinitely British. 
The family had been stranded at Puntarenas for a 
month. They were on their way to a brother in 
Nicaragua and had been delayed, as all things on 
the west coast are, by the vagaries of the Pacific 
mail schedule, when the tiny Miss W. threatened 
to arrive on the scene entirely without regard to 
the convenience of her parents. So the Waters 
were compelled to leave the steamer on which 
they were going northward, inasmuch as there 
was no pretence of proper medical attention on 
board — a quite customary characteristic, ap- 
parently, for the ships' doctors on the little liners 
are apt to be either totally inexperienced or so 
old that they have neither desire nor ability to 
attempt anything out of routine work. So the 
couple landed hastily at Puntarenas, and for- 
tunately falling into the hands of the Franklins, 
were taken in and cared for by a host, as well as 
a physician. 

A more extraordinary pair of babes in the wood 
it would be difficult to encounter at any out-of- 
the-way place in the world. Both were scarcely 
in their twenties. Neither knew anything of the 



20 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

country to which they were going, and to both 
a baby was a quite incomprehensible creature. 
They had no money, few ideas, and a wonder- 
ful British complacency, that chiefly resolved itself 
into a sublime belief that ''everything would turn 
out all right, " which was positively discouraging. 

''You know," said Waters, in his foggy accent, 
*'we have 2000 pounds of baggage on the way, 
and the beastly stuff has cost us more than $125 
already. Really, it 's positively atrocious, you 
know! Just to think of paying three cents a 
pound for getting it across Panama!" 

That three cent tariff he holds as an inter- 
national grudge against Uncle Sam and his 
isthmian railway. 

We sympathised as best we could, and as the 
stranded pair were headed for the interior wilds 
of Nicaragua, with a railroad journey from Corinto 
inland as the first stage of the journey, with a 
baggage tariff beyond belief, we were glad for the 
sake of his exchequer and his already wounded 
feelings that the young father had abandoned his 
original intention of bringing with him from 
England, as personal baggage, a "piano, a case of 
books, and a beastly 'eavy crate of crockery, you 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 21 

know." It is to be hoped that he, his pretty 
little wife, and the tropical born "Brooklet" 
arrived safely at their destination, and are living 
happily ever after. 

All of which reminds one that no matter where 
you go you find Britishers, not only the first-class 
travellers, the globe-trotters of book and of actual 
fame, and the business men pursuing the trade of 
the four corners of the world, but also such in- 
consequential youngsters as these. They start 
out for Timbuctoo or Borneo with as much aban- 
don and care-freeness as they would apply to a 
journey across the Channel. 

Next to Doctor Franklin, Senor Marquez was 
our guide, philosopher, and friend in Puntarenas. 
He was, and no doubt still is, the American con- 
sular agent. 

"The worst that could happen to Marquez," 
says Franklin, "would be for his liver to catch 
fire; there 's enough alcohol in it to bum for a 
week!" 

The Senor 's history — at least, such of it as he 
vouchsafed to us — is delightful in its queer gyra- 
tions. Born in Venezuela, he received his educa- 
tion in a monastic school on the island of Trinidad. 



22 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

I asked him if his early rehgious training stands 
him in good stead in Puntarenas, where there 
seems to be something of a shortage in such a 
commodity. 

"Indeed yes," replied the good-natured diplo- 
mat, with a twinkle in his dark eye. "Religion is 
admirable. It helps one keep a balance. If it 
were not for my training I could n't stay in 
Puntarenas and keep sober as much as I do. " 

Observation, alas, rather leads one to believe 
that reckoning the advantageous results of his 
monastic training on such a basis, a miore complete 
course would have done no serious harm. But be 
that as it may, a kinder, wittier, and altogether 
more courteous gentleman than the Senor is not 
to be found in all Central America. The American 
coat of anns hangs over his front door; on the 
reverse, inside, the wall is adorned with a cheerfully 
flamboyant beer seal proclaiming the gastronomic 
delights of a beverage that is purported to have 
made a middle western city famous. Which of the 
two insignia is the more revered by the Puntarenan 
populace it would be difficult to say. 

His position as consular agent is merely an 
avocation for Senor Alarquez, his chief interest 




On an intimate footing with, a cocoanut palm 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 23 

being the conduct of a general trading and com- 
mission business, which apparently embraces 
about everything from hides and lumber to the 
bartering of liquors and groceries. As his income 
from official duties for the month preceding our 
arrival had reached the munificent total of seven- 
teen colones, or. about eight dollars, it will be 
apparent that other sources of revenue were 
requisite. 

''But think of the honour of being a diplomat!" 
says the Senor, with a magnificent wave of his 
hand, and an always ready smile. 

This man speaks French, English, and Spanish 
fluently, and possesses an excellent knowledge 
of Greek and Latin. He has seen life — tropical 
life — from top to bottom, which means that he 
has about run the gamut of human possibilities. 
He is clever, shrewd, witty, and when he chooses, 
his manners and conversation would grace any 
company. Marquez lives in Puntarenas, and 
lives there contentedly, with no apparent desire to 
go elsewhere. He makes a little money, drinks a 
little, gambles a little; every day he has a siesta; 
altogether, he is typical enough of scores of tropi- 
cal dwellers with a minimum of initiative and 



24 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

vitality, and a maximum of desire for the dolce 
far niente existence. 

Dona Amelia Santos and the little hospital of 
San Rafael comprise an integral and important 
part of Ptmt arenas. Both are retiring and difficult 
to find. Dona Amelia is the saint. 

I met Dona Amelia in the tiny whitewashed 
office of the hospital, which stands near the beach 
in a remote corner of the straggling town. There 
is a high wall about the shady grounds, a cluster 
of cool-leaved palms, and an air of seclusion. 
Doiia Amelia is a Httle lady, Spanish, and dark. 
She speaks slowly and in a low voice — speaks 
English, for she received her nursing education 
at an American training school. She is a little 
grey, and more than a little sad, and frail, even 
though her movements are quick and decided. 

We met and talked, chiefly of her work, there 
in the poverty-stricken hospital — a poverty that 
came to be inspiring, as I learned its story, and the 
story of its guiding angel. 

''How is the hospital supported?" I had asked 
the Doctor. For answer he had nodded at Dona 
Amelia. The government sometimes is slow 
about supplying money for the institution, and 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 25 

then the kind-eyed, grey-haired woman who rules 
it somehow scrapes up a little money, the gap is 
bridged over, and the hospital's doors remain 
open for the poor. 

''Heaven only knows how much the govern- 
ment owes Dona Amelia," said the Doctor. 
*'I 'm certain she herself has no idea exactly how 
much of her own money has gone to the support of 
the hospital. She seems satisfied with the pay 
she gets in the smiles and blessings of the patients. 
And as at some time or other about every one in 
the country has been in the wards, there is no one 
so generally beloved as she." 

One poor fellow had been upon a cot for many 
months, terribly diseased. Finally he was cured, 
and sent forth a strong man. He gave Dona 
Amelia all he had. It was a silver piece, one 
colon. And Dona Amelia prizes that fifty cent 
piece mightily. 

In the office there is a rack with many small 
nails, and on each nail is hung a tiny trinket, made 
of silver, which has been given the hospital by 
patients. Many of the quaint souvenirs, called 
milagroSy are figures of men, about half an inch 
high, others are of fish, if the patient was a fisher- 



26 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

man, while some are tiny models of legs or arms, 
the limb whose misfortunes brought the patients 
to the hospital. One miniature represented a 
man on horseback, exquisitely executed in silver, 
the entire work not an inch in height. 

Dofia Amelia once was rich. Then her husband 
died, and she went north to study nursing, taking 
a four years' course in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania and working in hospitals. After that there 
was practical experience in Cuba, and then home 
to the Puntarenas hospital for the last seven years, 
where her labour has made her a veritable saint, 
reverenced scarcely second to the hospital's 
patron saint, Rafael, whose effigy stands with a 
candle always burning before it in an elaborate 
altar place, a great silver fish beside him. 

Dona Amelia related the legend of San Rafael: 
Once there was a poor man who laboured con- 
stantly burying the dead, out of charity. After 
working excessively he lay down to rest unpro- 
tected, and upon awakening, found that he had 
been stricken blind. Whereupon he sent forth his 
son to seek certain moneys he had, and on the road 
the son was met by San Rafael, to whom he told 
the tale of his father's affliction. San Rafael then 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 27 

showed the boy a great fish on the beach, telling 
him to get the fish's gall-bladder and take it to 
his blind father and apply it to his eyes, v/hich the 
son did, and sight was restored. 

The hospital has beds for fifty, about half of 
them being occupied when we visited it. As the 
Doctor enters the clean, bare wards every inmate 
who is able to do so, rises. 

^'Buenos dias/' says the Doctor, cheerily, and 
a conglomerate "good-morning," given with the 
greatest good- will, echoes through the room. 

Several of the cases were hookworm, all well 
on the way to recovery. One old man had heart 
trouble. He evidently was something of a gay 
Lothario, and no sooner was in good enough shape 
to go out than too much attention to the fair sex 
again demoralised his physique. 

The Doctor gave him a lecture. 

**A man with your heart simply must give up 
plural wives," he advised. ''You 're married 
too much. Cut it out." The negro grinned, 
and agreed. He always does agree. 

Among the charitable deeds of Dofia Amelia 
of which the world knows — and there are many 
unheard of — is her adoption of a motherless little 



28 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

girl ; also, she is caring for two boys, whom chance 
left at the hospital, to grow up like weeds were it 
not for the good woman whose life-work is bringing 
happiness to others in place of suffering. 

Music, you must know, is the alpha and omega 
of Central American social life. Costa Rican 
statistics, for instance, show a larger expenditure 
for public bands than for the maintenance of 
prisons. We had our introduction to this at 
the semi-weekly public concert given by the 
semi-military band. On one side of the play a, 
where the band played, is the port street, with the 
custom-house and a few sprawling buildings that 
include the club-house, where one can play pool 
and drink concoctions damaging to the liver, 
and on the other the sloping beach and the white 
breakers which loll in from the lazy ocean, quiet 
and blue and peacefully Pacific. Across the water 
at the west the sun dropped out of sight behind 
purple shore-hills and picturesque palm fronds. 
Thereupon the musicians played their last tune 
and pompously retired to the barracks. 

As all the women have black hair, a golden 
locked girl is decidedly a rarity, and envied as 
such. So the demand for peroxide and other 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 29 

bleaching concoctions is out of all proportion to 
the population. The grotesque result is an occa- 
sional white-haired child, ambling beside a mother 
whose hair is raven. Mrs. Franklin's little girl 
has golden curls. The mother of a child with 
ashen pale hair asked her why she did not improve 
her daughter's looks by bleaching out the unpleas- 
ant golden strain, and get a real aristocratic white. 
When Mrs. Franklin laughingly declined the 
advice, this southern mother could not understand. 

''It would make the hair so much prettier," 
she insisted. 

In the evening there was more music on the 
Franklin piazza built over the inky waters of the 
inlet, with a conglomerate group figuring alter- 
nately as performers and audience. 

First among the non- Yankees came Senor Torres, 
Doctor Franklin's henchman, who after mixing 
pills all day is a splendidly picturesque figure as 
he fingers his guitar by the light of the moon, and 
sings soft Spanish songs that would arouse the 
latent romanticism of a North Atlantic iceberg. 
Had he flourished a century or two ago, Seiior 
Torres would have been a notable conquistador 
(in appearance, at least) among the roguish 



30 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

gallants of the care-free Spanish Main, for nature 
intended the old gentleman for romantic walks 
of life — far m_ore romantic than the peddling of 
drugs under the supervision of a Yankee physician. 
His face is moulded handsomely, with aquiline 
nose, strong grey eyes beneath shaggy brows that 
would have done credit to a Morgan, and a goatee 
trimmed to perfection beneath his square browm 
chin. His thick hair is iron grey and wavy, and 
altogether good to look upon in a man past sixty, 
and then, too, the Sefior's clothes are elegant 
beyond compare, and his linen spotlessly fresh. 
Add to it all that he is well over six feet in height, 
gracefully proportioned, plays the guitar entran- 
cingly and sings with the restrained fervor of an 
operatic star, and one can understand that even 
to-day there arises something of a sigh among 
the fair ones of Puntarenas when Sefior Torres, 
Castilian cavalier, passes by. 

A handsome native lawyer, with an enchanting 
moustache, white ducks, and no English, also 
played a guitar. Dolloring, American by birth, 
and prospector by choice, was the other member 
of the performing trio. He played the fiddle, and 
later in the evening sang, in a low sweet voice, 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 31 

several melodious verses concerning the heart- 
burnings of sweet Dorris, an unsophisticated 
country lass burdened with an inconstant lover. 

Then there was Sykes, commodore of the local 
gasolene fleet, a graduate of Columbia University, 
who has been in the tropics long enough to know 
better. 

"IVe been here twelve years now and don't 
suppose I '11 ever get away," said Dolloring, not 
at all unhappily. Sykes did n't tell me how long 
he has been in Costa Rica because I did n't ask 
him, but I imagine he will stay. 

Sykes has been pretty well over Central America 
and had much to say, in a quiet way. He is dis- 
gusted with local labour conditions, chiefly because 
a friend put all his money into a big rice farm and 
when the rice was ready to be harvested could get 
no labour, there being none, and so lost his crop 
and with it his money. And to-day, Costa Rica 
is importing rice from the Far East by way of 
San Francisco. 

What most disgusted Sykes that evening was the 
statement made by a distinguished Senator who 
had been visiting the tropics, as recorded in a San 
Jose paper. 



32 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Said the Senator: ''I don't blame the Central 
Americans for disliking the Gringos they see. 
The trouble is that they have never seen any 
real Americans; only the scum of our worst 
class of adventurers and reprobates gets down 
here." 

That sort of thing makes them hot under the 
collar in the tropics, which is an unnecessary 
hardship when the temperature attends to the 
heating so thoroughly. 

Said Sykes: ''There was a time when we got 
pretty disgusted because men like that broke into 
print, slandering us. But what 's the use? Any- 
way, the people down here know the truth of the 
matter. Why, look here.'' and he drew from his 
pocket a copy of a recent San Jose newspaper. 
"This editorial refers to the esteemed politician. 
I don't think he 'd like it even as much as we like 
his silly gas about us." 

The article in question was a glowing indorse- 
ment of the Americans who live and work in 
Costa Rica, the men who "have made our country 
prosperous." It told the truth about the hard- 
ships they have suffered, their stick-at-itiveness, 
their determination and persistency, their courtesy 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 33 

and deference for native customs. And after 
recounting how the tropicalised Americans have 
conquered the bush and won the respect of the 
Costa Ricans, the little Spanish paper had some 
very pointed things to say regarding gentlemen 
who ought to stay in Washington, instead of 
touring foreign lands and slandering the pioneers 
who have preceded them and won success by the 
sweat of their brows. 

''And what makes me maddest," added Sykes, 
who was decidedly mad, ''is that we are n't asking 
any favours from our dear Government. One 
trouble is that such a vast lot of utter rot has been 
written about the tropics in general and Central 
America in particular. The average American 
seems to think that every white man down here 
is either a defaulting bank-cashier, a story-book 
soldier of fortune, or a tropical tramp." 

And while they were speaking of the prevarica- 
tors who write books and articles for a living they 
referred to the time honoured incident of the mon- 
keys who always throw cocoanuts at the intrepid 
travellers' heads. The only possible trouble about 
this pretty picture is that no one ever saw a mon- 
key in a cocoanut tree, and no one in Central 



34 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

America ever remembers seeing them throw cocoa- 
nuts even at itinerant writers, who no doubt 
heartily merit the attention. 

Another pet situation into which casual authors 
thrust their heroes and heroines is that of eating 
luscious, ripe bananas from the trees. Disadvant- 
age number two, however, casts its horrid shadow 
over the pen picture, when it becomes known that 
bananas never get ripe on the trees, even in their 
native jimgles. The comer-grocery-store habit of 
''lettin' 'em ripe," hung from a rafter, prevails 
even in the simny southland. 

From discussion of misinformed and misin- 
forming writers the conversation drifted around 
to conditions in Central America. "Conditions'* 
south of the Rio Grande, by the way, is another 
way of saying "politics." There were five of us 
who talked. Four had been in Central America 
each at least four years. All spoke Spanish. All 
were intimately familiar with men of all parts, 
parties, and professions, natives, Europeans, and 
Americans. 

They could n't agree, and there you have a key 
to Central American affairs, if you can call a 
deadlock by such a name: Those who are best 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 35 

informed agree in this alone — that there is no 
single, clear cut panacea for Central American 
ills. 

On one matter all were more or less united. 
Said they, in effect: ''Costa Rica and Salvador, 
of all the republics, are worthy of the name, and 
even in these the. franchise is much of a pretence ; 
elections are prearranged, and, to a mild degree- 
as such matters are judged in Spanish land — 
administration is on the spoils system. " How- 
ever, these lands have stability and a great measure 
of prosperity. 

Then from these happier countries they went— 
still in agreement — to the sister republics. All 
the others are distressingly on the decline, said 
they. Population is decreasing, wealth vanishing, 
debts accumulating. Political rottenness is no 
better than it was a score of years ago, economic 
conditions considerably worse. 

And what 's to blame? Where lies the cure? 
Ah, there I encountered the divergence of opinion. 
*' The Monroe Doctrine is the root of the trouble; 
the United States stands by idly and allows the 
rank conditions to flourish, meanwhile forbidding 
other nations to administer much needed spank- 



36 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ings/' So said one. He would have a military 
clean-up, followed by occupation. 

^'Quien sahe? Who knows?" says another. 
*'Give them time. Poco poco — little by little — 
there is no hurry. And see, the Americans are 
getting about all that is worth having anyway. 
Give our men a chance, and they will control 
affairs and remedy bad conditions." That was 
Dolloring; he had been in Costa Rica thirteen 
years. 

"Hands off! They must work out their own 
destiny," was the prescription of a third political 
doctor. 

So we talked: of the impossibility of a union 
of the republics, of the muddled incidents of the 
political past, of the probabilities of the future, 
and of countless other things, for world- talk comes 
readily in the soft tropical evening time, when the 
hard rub of the daily grind is a million miles away, 
and it is as easy as not to build air castles, and 
easier than not to settle the difficulties of himianity 
in passing. 

Brown was another member of the gathering. 
He was just what he would have been in ''The 
States," or anywhere else, meaning that he was 



INTRODUCING COSTA RICA 37 

the colour of the lemonade we sipped, which was 
nearly colourless. He had come down from the 
mines with a touch of fever, and was fairly well 
"doped" with quinine. At one time or another 
every one in the tropics has fever and quinine; 
"quinine complicated with fever," as one fellow 
put it. 

The evening was not unmarred. An excited 
boy came in, and jabbered something to the Doctor. 
It appeared that there had been a riot or a strike 
or something equally lugubrious at the mines. 
One report said twelve men had been killed, 
another only four, with a score badly injured. 
It appeared certain that the superintendent had 
been assassinated, as well as a particularly unpopu- 
lar foreman. 

"We expected that," Sykes mildly observed, 
when the news of the foreman's death filtered 
in, between songs. It seems that he was a gun 
man, who intimidated his men. 

Altogether, it was quite a party before we 
finished the evening. One hundred soldiers and 
twenty -five police had been sent up to aid the 
handful of Americans, who might have a couple 
of thousand labourers on their hands, most of them 



38 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

armed with revolvers as well as machetes. Dol- 
loring confided to me that he did n't particularly 
mind the gun fighting, but that when it came 
to knife mix-ups he preferred to be among those 
absent. 

''They're awfully dirty in a scrap," he said. 
"Did you ever notice how many of the people 
round here have scars?" 

Of course it was after pay day that the circus- 
started. Dolloring said he had never seen a fight 
in Costa Rica when the participants were sober, 
and one can get drimk only when one has the 
price, hence the close connection between pay 
days and riots. 




CHAPTER III 

THe Land of Beautiful Vie-ws 

I HE Ferrocarril al Pacifico is the rail- 
road that connects Puntarenas with 
the highland capital, San Jose. Its 
name is by far its most pretentious 
feature, and, apparently, its schedule is fashioned 
upon the leisurely example of the Pacific Mail. 
With the P. M., however, there seems room for 
argument as to which is cause and which is effect : 
whether the manana tendencies of the steamers 
are a result of those of the territory and the people 
they serve, or vice versa. 

Be that as it may, the daily train of the Ferro- 
carril al Pacifico takes seven hours to cover sixty- 
nine miles, and it may be remarked that those 
miles are * ' covered " in the fullest sense of the word, 
not to mention the traveller, the latter's person 
with an all-pervading dust, and his eyes with 
cinders from the wood-burning locomotives. 

The fare from the coast to the capital is $2.80, 
39 



40 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

gold. " Gold, " by the way, signifies anything but 
native money, the ''spiggoty" currency always 
being referred to as "silver," though the greater 
bulk of it handled by the traveller is in the form 
of filthy and usually very dilapidated paper notes. 
At the time of our visit the prevailing rate of 
exchange was slightly more than two to one, two 
Costa Rican equalling one American dollar. 

For several miles the road follows close to the 
beach. Costa Rica's strand is not of the "white 
silvery" variety of popular song fame, for instead 
the entire lower Pacific coastline's sand has a 
decidedly black hue. However, the dazzling white 
surf more than atones for the sombreness of the 
sand, while the radiant, ethereal opalescence of 
the sky, and the softly shimmering surface of 
the sea itself, gradually merging westward into a 
misty morning horizon, framed close at hand by 
the palms and tree growth of the shore, made a 
picture rich enough in colour to delight the most 
ardent eye, and infinitely dreamlike and reposeful. 
That is the trick of the tropics. Nowhere else 
do such placid effects go hand in hand with vivid 
contrasts. 

Along the tracks, before they leave the long sand- 




A more capable institution than a cactus fence it would be difficult to 

contrive 




Typical of the southland. Taboga Island, Bay of Panama 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 41 

spit on the end of which is Punt arenas, are scores 
of huts and houses nestHng in a wealth of foHage, 
with fruit trees and prospering gardens. The 
latter are admirably and uniquely fenced with 
cactus, whose thorn-clad leaves grow close together 
in straight rows as they are planted, forming a 
wall impenetrable to man or beast, often a dozen 
feet in height. A more capable institution than 
a cactus fence it would be difhcult to contrive. 
However, the flaming brilliancy of an occasional 
poinsettia, and the calla lily-like beauty of a name- 
less white shrub do much to offset the sombre 
appearance of the fences. 

Soon the road leaves the low sandspit, winds out 
along the base of rocky cliffs that drop sheer into 
the ocean, and then bears inland, starting its 
2500-foot climb toward San Jose. Several long 
tunnels are traversed. On the up journey the 
passage was made without mishap, although the 
bulging of the supporting timbers and the evi- 
dences of past and promised future slides of the 
soft red clay were anything but encouraging. 
On returning, two weeks later, all passengers were 
obliged to leave the cars and walk through the 
dripping, sagging tunnels on foot, it being deemed 



42 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

wiser to risk the loss of the train equipment than 
that of the human herd aboard. The day follow- 
ing our walk through the longest tunnel, a portion 
of it collapsed, fortunately before the train had 
reached it. 

''Why are n't they fixed — rebuilt?" I asked an 
English-speaking native. "Some day they will 
be," was the characteristic reply. Why spend 
money fixing them until they become useless, was 
the burden of the logic brought to bear upon the 
problem. The entire road, it appeared, had been 
completed less than a year. While little definite 
information was obtainable, there seemed excellent 
reason to believe that the contractors who con- 
structed it had reaped a golden harvest, being 
paid chiefly for what they did not do, while the 
government and the people were gradually awak- 
ening to the fact that they had footed the bills 
for a first class railroad and had been presented 
with a fourth class one. 

However, in contrast with the alleged waggon 
roads of the country, occasionally visible through 
the trees and lowland jungles, the Ferrocarril al 
Pacifico was a paragon of efficiency. These waggon 
roads were for the most part nothing more than 




=3 ~ 
2 H-^ 



- i 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 43 

sloughs. Indeed, enterprising, prosperous, stable 
little Costa Rica has anything but a proud record 
as a road builder. It is said, and with good 
reason, that the longest distance a carriage can go 
from San Jose is less than ten miles. Then roads, 
or pretence of roads, cease. There is some excuse 
for the deplorable condition in the fact that the 
soil is ill adapted to road construction; the clay- 
in most districts is naturally boggy, washes and 
slides readily, and is difficult to work. Also, 
Costa Rica is a land of hills, and likevrise a land of 
violent rains. Instances abound of the destructive 
combination — hills, rain, and clay — on the eastern 
railroad from San Jose to Limon, the Atlantic 
port, upon which hundreds of thousands of dollars 
are spent repairing washouts. That road, it 
should be remarked, is the property of American 
capital; whence the fact that it is kept in repair. 
It is a matter of historical record that San Jose 
was without railroad connection with the two 
oceans for many years after a great need for rail 
communication existed, for no other reason than 
that the people refused to allow the construction 
of an enterprise which would destroy the profitable 
waggon freighting business conducted from the 



44 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ports to the capital. In those days — decades ago 
— practically all of San Jose's export and import 
business was done through Puntarenas. San 
Francisco saw much of the wealthy Costa Ricans, 
and the Pacific Mail was the transportation key 
of Central America. Then appeared the United 
Fruit Company on the east; Limon became an 
important port, the Atlantic railroad was estab- 
lished, and on the west, the Panama railroad 
slumped as a transportation factor, the Pacific 
Mail became an occasional convenience instead 
of a necessity, and little Puntarenas waned. The 
new railroad doubtless will do something for the 
Pacific port, and the Canal may help it. But 
never again will it be the chief gateway to Costa 
Rica, as it was from the time of the early Spanish 
conquests long past the period of Panama's trade 
supremacy and the era of our own western trans- 
isthmian emigration. 

Costa Rica, as above noted, opposed the con- 
struction of railroads. Small wonder, too, because 
the little republic is essentially a land of horses. 
Better a ''land of saddle-bags"; I see that phrase 
scratched haphazard on the page of a note -book — 
a page smudged with one of those disconcerting 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 45 

cinders from the wood-burning locomotive, with 
which we were deluged during the long climb that 
stifling December morning. 

Truly a land of saddle-bags ! If I were commis- 
sioned to create a national coat-of-arms for Costa 
Rica, without hesitation the choice would be 
saddle-bags rampant against an emerald hill — 
with mud in the foreground! Every one rides. 
Some of the horses are splendid, and all are com- 
petent beasts. In no city of its size in the world 
have I seen so many really good horses or so many 
well cared for, and in contrast to the diminutive 
beasts of Panama City, the Costa Rican horses are 
colossal. At a station the rancher o rides in, 
leaves his horse with a mozo, perhaps to be taken 
back to his finca, or perhaps to await his return 
from the city, and then, with his saddle-bags under 
his arm, he takes his place in the car. Those 
saddle-bags contain his wardrobe, perhaps for a 
week; also a meal or two, and if he is a poor 
man, Heaven knows what else — mayhap a hen, 
small dog, or fruit. 

The men of the upper classes who move about 
the country dress much as men do in our West ; 
all wear leggings and soft hats, most of them spurs ; 



46 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

bright scarfs are popular. In all probability a 
larger proportion of men go armed in Costa Rica 
than any where else and yet Costa Rica is by far 
the most peaceable, both in its political and indi- 
vidual social make-up, of any of the Central Amer- 
ican Republics. An American will tell you that a 
Costa Rican cannot shoot. ''But look out for 
them with a machete, " is a warning to heed when 
the peons are on trouble bent. 

Primarily, Costa Rica is isolated. This is 
even more true socially than it has been politically, 
and geographically. In a great measure, the 
territory was overlooked by the conquistador es 
who swept over the rest of Central America. 
Wherever they established themselves, these Span- 
iards seized vast tracts of land, placed in operation 
the peonage system, and left for all time the stamp 
of their own characteristics, and those of their 
less worthy followers, upon the land. To-day the 
great brunt of the Costa Rican population is purely 
Caucasian. In the lowlands there are negroes, 
chiefly on the Atlantic coast, in the banana dis- 
tricts, to which they have been imported from 
Jamaica and elsewhere. The "400" of the re- 
public is almost a solid social mass. It is said 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 47 

that half a hundred leading families, all more or 
less blood relatives, exclusively control state 
affairs, and, of course, elections. 

In the cool plains of their delightful highlands 
the Costa Ricans have prospered, and to-day are 
the happiest of the Central Americans. They 
have had little need to meddle in the affairs of their 
neighbours, and on the rare occasions when neigh- 
bours have attempted the meddling, the latter 
have had excellent opportunity to regret their 
bad taste. For while the history of the little 
land is one of comparative peace, its ability to care 
for itself in time of need has been amply demon- 
strated more than once. It was the compact 
Costa Rican army that put an end to Wil- 
liam Walker's expeditioning in Nicaragua, for 
instance. 

Since 1842, Costa Rica has been independent, 
and since then has suffered no serious internal 
disturbance and no external difficulties at all. 
Her population is something less than half a 
million, though absolute accuracy as regards the 
latter is next to impossible; while the official 
statistics of Costa Rica are far more trustworthy 
and complete than those of any of its neighbours, 



48 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

excepting perhaps Salvador, even they are far 
from being entirely dependable. 

Costa Ricans are essentially a happy people, 
and their land a land of smiles, compared with the 
national melancholy that for the most part per- 
vades the other countries — again excepting little 
Salvador. There is no land tax. The result is 
that every one owns a few acres, and as the pro- 
ductivity of the soil is marvellous beyond words, 
and the physical needs of the inhabitants simplicity 
itself, the inevitable outcome is a measure of 
universal satisfaction. 

But to return to the railroad journey. 

After hours of laborious scrambling up heavy 
winding grades, including a switchback or two, 
and the negotiation of several abysmal gorges 
over tight-rope-Hke steel bridges (one of the 
bridges that cross the Rio Grande, is 318 feet above 
the little yellow river, and affords an understanding 
of the difficulties of cross-country travel), we 
gradually emerged in the open reaches of the 
uplands. Below, the air had been furnace-like; 
magnificent forests, with flowers and vines and a 
wealth of foliage crowded the hillsides that hemmed 
us in. Now, toward noon (we had left Pimtarenas 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 49 

at nine o'clock) the air became cooler and bracing, 
the forests were left behind, and in their place 
appeared rolling reaches of fields and meadows, 
interspersed with innumerable hills. At first these 
latter completely shut out extensive views, but 
later, as the plateau lands were reached, inspiring 
vistas opened up on either hand. Near by were 
emerald sabanas, broad grassy fields, checkered 
with cattle; here and there and everywhere were 
tiny huts and houses, mostly made of mud or 
adobe walls and thatched with palm leaves and 
other native plant products. In the distance, 
to right and left, rose round-domed hills and sharper 
pinnacles, all green clad and covered with fields 
far up their sides. The altitude of none, I sup- 
pose, was in excess of six or seven thousand feet, 
but their effect, with the good cool air to boot, 
was delightfully exhilarating after weeks in torrid 
Panama and the lowland coast regions. 

Everywhere there were evidences of intensive, 
if crude, cultivation. In the mid-regions, for in- 
stance, where the altitude favoured its production, 
we saw hundreds of rice fields, and the men and 
women in them threshing out the crop, which was 
accomplished in the most primitive way imaginable. 



50 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

A small frame, or table, is placed conveniently in 
the field, and around it, on three sides, a wind- 
shield of burlap or similar material is rigged up. 
Then the workers bring sheaves of the cut grain, 
which are laid on the table while a man with a 
crude cudgel beats them, shaking the rice from the 
stalks, to be gathered up. While we had no 
opportunity to make close examination of one of 
these contrivances, it is safe to say that in a day's 
work an active man would fiail out but a bushel 
or two of rice, and that only with a generous ex- 
penditure of ''elbow grease." However, rice has 
been harvested that way since their fathers' 
fathers came to Costa Rica, and no doubt will 
continue so to be long after the present generation 
is forgotten. 

At Oritina, about midway betw^een the sea and 
the capital, we had three-quarters of an hour for 
dinner. A swarm of very old women and very 
young children besieged the cars, offering at the 
windows a display of delicacies and indelicacies 
which was remarkable. There were tortillas, sl 
soggy pancake affair, made as Providence directed 
and cooked accordingly on a hot surface; tortillas 
are the staff of life to your Central American. 




A Tehuantepec woman making tortillas. 
" A tortilla is a soggy pancake affair " 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 51 

Queso de mantequilla, a soft cream cheese, was 
peddled in convenient slabs of doubtful cleanliness. 
There were hardy omelettes, called, I believe, 
tortillas compuestas; and sweets, meats, and a horde 
of unknown little gastronomic offerings, including 
fruits of many kinds, from the world-known 
banana, orange, and pineapple to less familiar 
fruits, which later experience taught us were 
papya, anona, pixbcB, zapote, granddilla pequena 
and others less readily identified; among them 
may be mentioned an affair that resembles a darn- 
ing egg, and is full of a custard-like sweet substance, 
generously interspersed with black seeds. A 
zapote looks much like a russet apple, and contains 
sweet meat of a terra-cotta colour. However, the 
pixbcB, which is really a small nut, gives one's 
tasting organs the strangest sensation of all; the 
easiest way to describe the pixbce is to say that its 
meat resembles a peculiar combination of sweet 
potato and chestnut, if such a union can be im- 
agined. This, by the way, in the exterior of a yellow 
tomato, is to say the least, a bit of a surprise! 

While the second-class passengers shrilly bar- 
gained for their lunch purchases with the vendors, 
we made our way to an eating- place beside the 



52 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

track, under the guidance of a Spanish-speaking 
American engineer. The theory that it is difficuh, 
and even dangerous, to travel through Latin 
America unless one speaks Spanish is a foolish 
fallacy. Without Spanish, of course, one misses 
much that is worth having, suffers some incon- 
veniences and worries, and probably gets ''stuck" 
a few more times than is strictly necessary. How- 
ever, the point in this instance is that invariably 
when an interpreter is wanted the right man pro- 
videntially turns up. The Spaniards themselves 
are polite and obliging beyond words; also, many 
of them speak English excellently; and lastly, 
Americans seem to be scattered in every nook and 
comer of the country. 

The dinner chiefly consisted of rice and frijoles, 
or beans; to be happy in the southland one must 
be an enthusiastic admirer of these two funda- 
mentals of Central American diet. Beans, rice, 
and tortillas are about all a native epicure desires. 
Remove the rice from the menu, and you have the 
fare of the poor, 365 days a year. 

Our guide was an American engineer, who was 
returning to his charge, the construction of a power 
plant that is tucked away on a remote mountain 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 53 

stream, ultimately to be harnessed in connection 
with the development of gold mines in the north- 
western districts. He told us much of the life of 
the haphazard Americans who filter here and there 
through the tropics, and later proved a courteous 
guide in San Jose. 

At Athenas, which resembled Athens not at all, 
there was another recess from travel, of which the 
himgry availed themselves in consuming a second 
catch -as-catch-can luncheon. I recall that greasy 
bits of fried chicken figured extensively in the 
Athenas bill of fare, and I admit that it was most 
excellent chicken, too. 

At the stations and on the train a shifting kaleido- 
scope of native types opened before us, most of 
them drawn from the lowlier walks of life. The 
women are of medium height, brown skinned, 
dark eyed, quiet, and seldom beautiful, for the 
bloom of the Spanish girl seems to wear off quickly. 
But the smiles (even an inexperienced Gringo can 
provoke them!) are worth their price, whatever it 
be, for Spanish lips are notably red, and beneath 
them are universally pretty and snowy white teeth. 
The real Costa Ricans dress chiefly in black, 
though the Indian women revel in gaudy colours, 



54 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

but to a far less degree than do their sisters in 
Guatemala; their adornments are brighter, per- 
haps, than those of the country women of Italy, 
but less varied, and their effect far less artistic 
than that of any Neapolitan street crowd. But 
on the whole, of course, the human scenery is 
reminiscent of Italy and of Spain. Hats there are 
none, but everywhere shawls; oftentimes the rag- 
gedest barefoot hag, with a faded cotton skirt, 
will wear the most exquisite silk shawl. 

In all Costa Rica we saw not a single boy with 
short trousers. Account for it? Not I! The 
only plausible explanation is that the youngsters 
are adorned at birth with the discarded long 
trousers of their paternal parents, tucked up to 
meet requirements. Later, the tucks are un- 
reefed as occasion demands. 

The carts of Costa Rica are unique, and typical 
of the transportation of all Central America. 
Their two wheels are made of solid blocks of wood, 
with a tire width of perhaps eight inches; the 
frames are massive, and the "pole" is in itself 
a goodly beam, bringing the total weight of the 
cart up to a figure that would dishearten any horse. 
However, oxen supply the motive power, great 




-O o 
I ^ 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 55 

lumbering, thick shouldered beasts, with an 
appearance of abject ill temper and a reality of 
subdued docility. Their only harness is the 
clumsy wooden yoke joining the necks of the 
"team," for they almost invariably go two and 
two, bearing the weight of the pole and pulling 
the incredible loads entirely with this neck yoke. 

The big beasts hang their heads close to the 
ground, plodding after their driver who guides 
them with a long light stick, one end of which he 
rests on the yoke, as he marches before them, a 
sort of pilot. A grunted order to "port," "star- 
board," or "stop" is obeyed with surprising 
intelligence. From babyhood the bullocks are 
joined together with a yoke, which they carry 
to their graves, so that long before they take to the 
broad highway and the task of earning their daily 
bread and butter (or whatever a normal ox 
relishes) each member of a team has become 
accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the other. 
Whether or not the process is mutually satisfactory, 
it must be admitted that never was a more com- 
prehensive double life enacted. It assuredl}^ is a 
case, in the nth degree, of "two souls with but a 
single thought, two hearts that beat as one. " 



56 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Near Athenas, where we first saw the national 
ox cart in all its glory, an attempted robbery had 
resulted comically, but a month or so before. A 
pack-train of burros en route from near-by mines 
to the railroad, all heavily loaded with bullion, 
had been intercepted by highwaymen, and their 
guards either killed or scattered. Also, sad to 
relate, the burros scattered, and so effectively 
that they and their precious burdens, like the play 
villain after the denouement, were "never again seen 
or heard of." At least they didn't show up for 
several days, when they placidly put in an appear- 
ance at the mines, the gold still upon them. 
Which, it will be admitted, was hard on the enter- 
prising highwaymen, and proves that a burro 
in the hand is worth two in the bush. 

From an agricultural standpoint this first 
section of our initial Central American transcon- 
tinental trip gave us a splendid key to the zones 
of production of the various staples. It was much 
as if we cut a cross-section of the big isthmus, for 
comfortable examination. 

Roughly speaking, the topographical conforma- 
tion of all Central America is identical. The 
Cordilleras, backbone of the continental divide, 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 57 

wind north and south through the mid regions, 
at various distances from the two oceans. The 
productive hinterland is composed of plateaus and 
valleys. On the two flanks of the continental 
ridge are hardwood forests and agricultural areas. 
Below lie the coastal plains. The lowest zone, that 
of the coast regions, is banana land; also, there 
are hardwood forests, and, in the foot-hills, 
mineral riches. Then, as altitude is gained, 
comes the coffee belt, the region of beautiful 
fincas, with their incredibly natty orchards of red- 
berried trees; oranges and all other fruit flourish 
in this strata, but from a commercial view-point 
coffee is king, a far more important monarch in 
Salvador and Guatemala than in Costa Rica, 
where its production is of less commanding import- 
ance. Above, on the plateaus, is cattle land, and 
coffee too, for many tons of the finest beans are 
raised in the highest altitudes. Banana-raising is 
the industrial standby of Costa Rica, and when we 
later continued our ocean- to-ocean journey, and 
dipped down into the hot swamps of the Atlantic 
lowlands, we saw the workings of the great banana 
industry at its best ; of that anon. 

That transcontinental journey was a rare lesson 



58 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

in geography. Among other things it taught us 
that there is as much diversity of cHmate in Cen- 
tral America as the most fastidious might desire. 
Beheve no one who tells you that you "suffocate 
from heat" in Costa Rica, for its heights offer 
the most delightful wintering climate imaginable. 
Indeed, when once travellers* accommodations are 
provided. North America has at its door an ideal 
pleasure place for winter excursioning, and one 
in no way excelled — climatically, scenically, or 
historically — by anything that much-travelled 
Europe has to offer. 

Late in the afternoon the final climb was accom- 
plished and we jolted along the open prairies of the 
plateau which holds the capital city, and which, 
perhaps a dozen miles in width, extends east and 
west, finally funnelling to a narrower pass near the 
summit of the continental divide, where just to the 
westward lies San Jose. On the last stretch of that 
journey we realised m.ore than ever the aptness of 
the title often given to Costa Rica — "The Land 
of Beautiful Views. " Truly, the highland scenery 
was lovely, the countryside curiously resembling 
the Massachusetts Berkshires. (I had almost said 
the highlands of Sweden, had not the comparison 



THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 59 

of Northern Europe with our own tropics seemed 
too far fetched — which, in reality, in this instance 
it is not.) The rolling meadows were dotted with 
boulders, here and there abrupt little valleys 
nosed into the rounded hills, while the fields and 
fences made of it all a pastoral checker-board of 
greens and browns, over which random shadows 
raced now and again as the fluffy white clouds 
scampered pell-mell across the bluest of blue even- 
ing skies, chased by the uncertain breezes that 
seemed to meet hereabout midway between the 
two oceans. 

Forthwith we were in San Jose, whence a speedy 
drive took us to the Hotel Imperial. Our room 
there — telegraphed for ahead — was one of decayed 
elegance, its most notable characteristic being 
that it contained the worst bed in the world. 
The mattress, I am convinced, was stuffed with 
sand. Concerning the pillows, this mournful 
note-book entry tells the story: "They are a cross 
between cold buckwheat cakes and a dress-suit 
case." 

"Often the hotel proprietor will call your atten- 
tion to the freshness of the linen, if it happens to 
he fresh, " was advice I had once received, preHmin- 




CHAPTER IV 
Costa Rica's Capital 

OSTA RICA'S capital is a gay little 
city of surprising contrasts and con- 
tradictions. For instance, Costa 
Rica is, economically, far more 
Americanized than any of its neighbours, and yet 
San Jose is anything but American in appearance 
and manners. On a very miniature scale it is 
Parisian. At all events, the streets, the stores, 
and the people show a European stamp that 
is unmistakable. 

"And why not?" said Senor Domento, to whom 
we bore introductions. ''Europe is our play- 
ground. All of us who can afford it, and many 
who cannot, spend our holidays there. We know 
Paris far better than we know New York. To be 
sure, of late there is more travel to your country, 
thanks to the steamer service of the United Fruit 
Company, but even it is negligible. We are ignor- 
ant of North America." 

62 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 63 

He showed me the San Jose newspapers, which 
are well above the standard of Latin land journal- 
ism. They have typesetting machines, adequate 
plants, and elaborate quarters — editorial offices, 
indeed, so superbly sumptuous that a Yankee 
reporter, accustomed to shirt -sleeves, deal tables, 
and cigar stumps, would wonder if he had not 
blundered into the realms of royalty, should he 
suddenly be transported into the leisurely "city 
room" of La Informacion with portraits of 
celebrities on the frescoed walls, mahogany 
trimmings, and gilded decorations ad infin- 
itum. 

I say the newspapers are creditable. Yet their 
cable news, most of it, exclusively concerns Euro- 
pean affairs. There is a smattering of Central 
American items. What purports to originate in 
the United States is chiefly of the most sensational 
character, and that grossly exaggerated. Truly, 
I believe an honest seeker after light, should his 
sole means of information be the Central Amer- 
ican papers, would emerge from the journalistic 
encounter with the fixed belief that the United 
States is a land of lynchings, border battles, trust 
baiting, and political jockey ings that would pale 



64 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

to insignificance the most rabid efforts of profes- 
sional tropical revolutionists. 

Why this? The answer is easy. Newspapers 
the world over are apt to give their readers what 
their readers want. Central Americans are inter- 
ested in Europe. They want European news. 
They have preconceived notions regarding con- 
ditions in the United States; their prejudices, not 
unnaturally, are fed. It is all too bad, but quite 
unavoidable. Americans who may be disposed 
to censure such an attitude and such ignorance 
would do well to remember that ninety per cent, 
of the news our own papers print regarding Central 
America is pure balderdash, or has been up to 
perhaps two years ago. Our public knows nothing 
about southern affairs. Our notions, hitherto fed 
by Sunday special writers, fiction published as 
such, and other fiction published as fact, are sadly 
awry. But more on that head later. Suffice to 
add that the opening of the Canal and the increas- 
ing effort on our part to get acquainted with the 
little brother countries south of Mexico will bring 
about a natural, if somewhat slow, cure. 

A word regarding the treatment of local news is 
opportune here. Costa Rica is supposed to have 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 65 

a free press, and there is, I believe, no official 
censorship. Yet there is in the Costa Rican 
papers very little anti-administration news, and 
practically no editorial criticism of governmental 
procedure. I know of no instances of direct 
persecution (they abound in the other lands), yet 
there is a decided lack of candour in press expression 
upon public affairs. Perhaps it is as well. The 
country is prosperous. Elections are held; to be 
sure, the candidates are placed before the "com- 
mon peepul" by a social — or moneyed — ring, and 
there is no opposition worthy of the name to the 
preordained winner. But the press freedom of 
Costa Rica — and Salvador — far and away leads 
that of the other republics. In fact, there is none 
elsewhere. Editors either say what the powers 
that be desire to have said, or say nothing at all — 
facing an alternative the least disagreeable of 
whose consequences is financial ruin. 

A further comment upon Central American 
journalism may be ventured. Judging from the 
evident expense of conducting them (even where 
typesetters receive only seventy cents a day!) 
and the apparent limitation of their legitimate 
revenues, the supposition seems justifiable that 



66 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

in most cases the papers are supported by one 
interest or another, and are sustained as useful 
mouthpieces. The opinion is but a supposition, 
and nothing more. 

So San Jose is European, and wealthy Costa 
Ricans go to Paris and the Riviera for their fun. 
One result is that mortgages, most of them held by 
Germans, abound on the fincas and haciendas, for 
Germany first entered the field and retains the 
lion's share of Central American loans and 
trade. Aside from the great fruit company, 
the interests of our own capitalists are al- 
most exclusively centred in mining and railroad 
properties. 

San Jose has a population of about 40,000. The 
streets are paved and scrupulously clean. Nearly 
all the buildings are of one story, chiefly built of 
stone blocks or adobe, with plastered walls, which 
are tinted a score of hues, all delicate and adding 
to the bright attractiveness of the airy little town. 
Pinks, browns, delicate blues and greens abound; 
with the background of the verdant hills, and the vi- 
vacious couleur locale furnished by the gay shawled 
women and well-groomed men, with the pictur- 
esque and ever-present primitive touch added by 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 67 

the antediluvian ox carts, San Jose's vistas are a 
source of never-ending delight. 

Sidewalks are absurdly narrow, many not more 
than eighteen inches wide. Just why, unless they 
were planned with an eye to strict (and unlikely) 
propriety, it is hard to say. To add to the diffi- 
culty of dual enjoyment of their privileges is the 
fact that they are some two feet above the street 
level, and usually have a goodly stream of water 
racing beside them in the abysmal gutters. 
These gutters, with their living streams, are for 
the most part the city's sewers. So an outing on 
a San Jose sidewalk with one's lady resolves itself 
into something of an acrobatic performance, 
especially if there is any traffic in the opposite 
direction; one must be prepared to abandon the 
precarious walk on a second's notice and leap 
lightly — gracefully, if possible — across the flooded 
gutter down upon the street, and back again, 
when chance offers. 

The men of the richer class are remarkable for 
their elegance. In no small city have I ever seen 
so many nattily dressed gentlemen. Some are 
Americans, some German ; a few may be travelling 
men, but for the most part they are the native 



68 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



gentlemen. "Top" hats are no novelty. White 
vests, Prince Alberts, spats, and patent leather 
shoes are as much en evidence as they would be on 
any Parisian boulevard. Doubtless one reason 
for the universal ''well dressedness" is the low 
price of tailor-made clothing, which averages about 
half of our home prices. And, of course, manners 
are as elegant as apparel, but that is no peculiarity 
of San Jose alone, for Spanish manners are per- 
fection in any setting. There, indeed, lies one 
reason why Americans, and particularly Yankee 
salesmen, prosper so illy in the Republics. Amer- 
ican manners, as a whole, are abominable; at 
least, they certainly are when judged by Latin 
standards. In Latin land it is quite customary 
to take one's hat entirely off when being introduced 
to the chancest passer-by on the street. One 
always shakes hands at the slightest provocation. 
Floweriness of speech, compliments, and a funda- 
mental graciousness (it is inherent and not at all 
conscious or assumed) are social essentials. How 
many Yankee drummers would come out un- 
scathed, under such competition, do you suppose? 
"It gets on my nerves, all this foolishness," 
said a hustling Chicago drummer. He was try- 




A contrast in San Jose — modem lighting and archaic transportation 




The principal street of Costa Rica's capital 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 69 

ing to sell canned goods. ''Why in h — don't 
they cut it out and get down to business?" 

The answer to such a query is written large in 
the store windows of San Jose and other Central 
American towns: They are full of European 
goods. The German, the Britisher, and the suave 
Frenchman have been studying selling conditions 
for a generation. They have trained men in the 
field, who can be as polite, as gracious, and, if 
needs be, as supremely leisurely, as their native 
patrons. But our wholesalers are learning. Also, 
they are coming to understand the peculiar 
demands of the tropical trade as regards the pack- 
ing of goods, and that their competitors on the 
other side of the Atlantic cater to the slow-but-sure 
pay methods of Central and South America. 
Thousands of North American orders have been 
lost because the quick thinking, quick acting north- 
erners have insisted on sixty-day payment, when 
your southerner considers anything less than six 
months nearly the equivalent of ''cash," and has 
no hesitation in expecting a year within which to 
pay for his purchases. 

Of the upper class women one sees little, except, 
perchance, when they drive slowly about the plaza 



70 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

in their victorias during a band concert, or appear 
at social functions. But they spend the great 
majority of their Costa Rican days in privacy, 
probably reserving themselves for the mad swing 
of the annual European vacation time. 

The social barometer of the feminine rank and 
file is the shawl. The lowest strata cover their 
heads with shawls of black cashmere. Then come 
embroidered cotton scarfs, next silk scarfs, and 
finally, most beautiful and expensive of all, are 
the exquisitely embroidered silk shawls, of many 
shades and with elaborate fringes, that adorn the 
brunette heads of the well-to-do and give to the 
streets their brightest touch of colour. A favour- 
ite and exquisite tint is coffee, and surely none 
could be more appropriate in this land of the 
coffee bean. The middle-class women, and the 
poor, wear their hair in tw^o braids, with debonair 
bows at the ends. Thin faces seem rare among the 
native women; the characteristic face is full, with 
extremely broad jowls and rounded cheeks. These 
latter, however, are not left as nature made them, 
for although their ruddy colouring seems to re- 
quire no embellishment, painting is very popular. 
Even girls in their teens practise the habit and 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 71 

practise it lavishly, while the facial make-up of the 
older women is often so vivid as to be laughable. 

There are many, many cripples. Perhaps they 
are particularly apparent because of the narrow 
streets and sidewalks, and especially inasmuch as 
their sorrowful deformities stand out in such con- 
trast to the sunny gaiety of their surroimdings. 

San Jose is unique in that it is a night-time as 
well as a day-time city. Use of the streets of most 
Central American cities practically ceases at dark, 
but not so with San Jose, for its well-lighted 
sidewalks and plazas are thronged during the cool 
evenings. Another metropolitan characteristic is 
the electric street-car line, of modest proportions, 
to be sure, but the only one between Mexico and 
Panama. 

The Costa Ricans are extravagant. Their land 
is prodigal, and so are they. An ever-present 
evidence of this in San Jose is the number of 
excellent and attractive stores. Prices are high, 
thanks to distance from European supply points 
and high duties, but if the coffee crop is good, who 
cares about a few colones, one way or the other? 
There are better things to eat and more costly 
things to wear in the shops of San Jose than in 



72 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

those of any other Central American city; the 
per capita foreign trade of Costa Rica is five times 
that of any of its neighbours. 

The supreme extravagance of the city and the 
repubHc is the Teatro NacionaL Think of an 
isolated town of 40,000 people with an opera-house 
that cost a million dollars! 

Up to a few years ago dodging interest payment 
on her national debt, spending nothing for much 
needed roads and less for agricultural betterments, 
proud little Costa Rica yet lavished millions upon 
public buildings, of which the Teatro Nacional is 
the crown jewel. 

Through the courtesy of Colonel Prestinary, 
secretary to President Jiminez, we were escorted 
through the beautiful theatre by a well-informed 
gentleman whose name is of no concern. We 
admired, sincerely, the magnificent marbles, the 
lavish mural decorations, the furnishings; we con- 
ceded it to be what it truly is, an architectural 
masterpiece, of, perhaps, a rather overdrawn and 
bizarre school. 

"How could Costa Rica afford such an extrava- 
gance?" I asked. We had been talking of the 
recent defalcation in the payment of interest upon 




< 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 73 

the national debt, of the need of good roads, and 
the possibilities of agricultural betterment. 

''Ah, you cold, practical Anglo-Saxons do not 
understand." The speaker was himself a practi- 
cal man; educated in one of our colleges, he knows 
us. "We are Latins here. It is in the Spanish 
blood to love beauty and play — la fiesta. We had 
the money, and so — " here an all-explanatory 
shrug of the shoulders, "so, we built our theatre. 
And is it not truly beautiful ? Is it not a thing for 
little Costa Rica to be proud of.^ Surely we are 
progressive." 

True, this luxurious building stands a monument 
to its builder's progressiveness — or is it to the 
baffling inconsequentiality of Central Americanism? 

Other Costa Ricans will shrug their shoulders 
quite differently than did our guide. I talked 
with Sefior Don Cleyo Gonzalez Viquez, the ex- 
president, and, I believe, a prominent candidate 
for the presidency in 19 14. He was proud of the 
"progressiveness," but, "Half the money would 
have given us a theatre amply good enough for 
San Jose, " said he. "And think of the roads the 
other half million might have made." He re- 
minded me that a carriage can progress safely 



74 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

not more than half a dozen miles from the site 
of the Teatro NacionaL 

Many of the educated Costa Ricans speak 
English. Nearly all are at home with French, and 
probably as many speak German, for Costa Rica 
is essentially cosmopolitan, while at the same time 
being fundamentally clannish. The land is well 
equipped with schools, having by all odds the 
best educational system of any of the republics. 
Guatemala makes a great boast of its school sys- 
tems, but superficial investigation leaves the 
impression that it is principally "system" and 
very little real schooling. Costa Rica, on the other 
hand, has real schools, real pupils, and real teachers. 
One of its favourite boasts is that there are more 
teachers in the republic than soldiers. A imique 
feature of the high school course is that the third - 
year pupils are assigned as assistant teachers in 
the various ward schools in San Jose. There is no 
provision for university instruction. A normal 
school is encouraged by bounties to its scholars, 
offered by the government to encourage men and 
women to enter the unremunerative teachers' 
profession. One-eighth of the annual budget is 
devoted to educational work. 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 75 

The Biblioteca Nacional, or public library, with 
about 50,000 volumes well housed, represents the 
literary side of life better than might be expected 
in an isolated land of 350,000 inhabitants. To 
be sure, the dust that covers many shelves per- 
haps indicates a livelier national interest in music 
and the drama than in literature. Mark Twain 
was well represented, and Sefior Ferroz, the aged 
librarian, told us that Dickens, whose works we 
found in Spanish and French as well as English, 
was by all odds the ''best seller" to-day. 

Important among the other public institutions 
is the insane asylum, situated on the outskirts of 
the city. It has the distinction of being supported 
by the national lottery, from which it derives 
a monthly revenue of 18,000 colones, or about 
$9000. 

The lottery, with monthly drawings, sells 
100,000 colones worth of tickets. In the words of 
an observant American, it is ** absolutely straight, " 
something of a distinction, as lotteries go. In 
Panama the lottery is extremely noticeable; one 
sees ticket sellers everywhere, and the regular 
Sunday drawings — held in the Bishop's Palace, by 
the way — attract eager crowds. In San Jose one 



76 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

sees no ticket sellers, and but few tickets which are 
displayed in stores. Another difference in the two 
countries is that in Panama the immensely profit- 
able gambling institution is conducted by a private 
individual, under lease from the government, 
while Costa Rica operates its own lottery, and 
devotes the proceeds to the support of an 
admirable public institution. 

In the national park near the railroad station 
you can find comfortably shaded seats. I word 
it thus because the seats themselves, geograph- 
ically, so to speak, are not comfortable, but the 
shade is. And sitting there, you look upon the 
statue group which commemorates the expulsion 
from Costa Rica of William Walker and his * ' army " 
of adventurers. The work bears the inscription 
"Batalla de Santa Anna, May 20, 1866." The 
group represents a handful of bronze patriots ris- 
ing in their wrath, while before them the filibuster- 
ing American flees in terror and defeat. From a 
standpoint of sculpture the statue has merit, and 
regarded as a memento of an historical incident 
that is quite unique, it commands attention. 

One afternoon I met President Don Ricardo 
Jiminez, having borne an introduction to him from 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 77 

Washington, and a more personal one from Dr. 
Belisario Porras, who became President of Panama 
in October, 1912. 

It was in the drawing-room of the palace that 
we met. I entered a vestibule, passed a soldier or 
two; there was no pomp or difficulty. Secretary 
Colonel Prestinary. greeted me — a tall, polished 
gentleman, half German, wholly courteous, fault- 
lessly clad in military uniform. He regarded my 
credentials, and left me while he presented the 
introductions to His Excellency. 

The room was typical of nothing at all. It was 
over-furnished. Red plush and gilt chairs and 
sofas, of the Louis XIV. style, precise and com- 
fortless; rich red wall paper, formal paintings, 
gilt framed and some of them good; a portrait of 
a president or two, the inevitable glass candelabra, 
and deep windows, shuttered against the afternoon 
sun, opening direct upon the sidewalk, through 
the medium of stout bars. 

During the brief minutes I waited, I recalled 
meeting, a few weeks earlier, with Don Pablo 
Arosemena, President of Panama. There had 
been a deal more of pomp; many soldiers, some 
formalities, and ultimately something akin to dis- 



78 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

appointment, for when I met the worthy President 
upstairs in the national palace, I found him in 
shirt sleeves and collarless, loafing on a balcony, 
and altogether appearing extremely unpresidential. 

Ricardo Jiminez looks and talks as if he would 
make an excellent school teacher. He was well 
dressed, wearing a conventional frock coat. A 
man of fifty or thereabout, with brown eyes that 
occasionally light up with enthusiasm or quiet 
humour, rather serious, of medium height, straight, 
low voiced, he is every inch a gentlemen. His 
conversation and his manners are polished to that 
point which is agreeable without being boresome. 

After the formalities of introduction, he seated 
himself beside me on a sofa, incidentally apologis- 
ing for his poor English and then speaking most 
excellently. 

"Well, what sort of a report will you make of 
poor little Costa Rica?" he asked, with a half 
smile. 

I enthused. It was genuine enthusiasm. That 
opened the way for a brief, and apparently frank, 
discussion of affairs. One of his first complaints 
was that his country had so often been maligned 
by writers. He was bitter in his denunciation of 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 79 

ill-informed visitors who publish erroneous reports 
concerning things as they are not. 

"What do you Americans like to read, any- 
way?" was one of President Jiminez's queries. 

He was curious to know why so much misin- 
formation was printed and accepted regarding 
Central America. He resented the fact that the 
average American had no idea that Costa Rica 
is a stable, law-abiding country. He spoke with 
pride of the import and export statistics, comparing 
them with those of Guatemala and Nicaragua, 
both far larger and far poorer lands. We talked 
of the problem of raising fimds without a land 
tax. To-day more than half the country's income 
is derived from the liquor monopoly, and the 
administration finds itself in the somewhat embar- 
rassing position of favoring strict steps for the 
advancement of prohibition while at the same 
time such a course must very seriously impair its 
income. 

''Yes, much of our freedom from revolutions 
during the last half century is due to the fact 
that land is untaxed, for without taxation there is 
great encouragement toward owning a little land, 
and as every one is a property owner no one wants 



8o SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

to see existing conditions upset, for fear of losing 
what they already have. In some of the other 
countries it has been very different. There the 
poor people have owned absolutely nothing; they 
have had nothing to lose and perhaps much to 
gain by revolution. At least, the hope of possible 
gain was well drilled into them by their lead- 
ers. And then there is the excitement. Life is 
dull in the bankrupt countries, and one must have 
diversion." 

Evidently President Jiminez is a close student of 
the affairs of the world, and certainly is well read 
regarding modern political and economic develop- 
ments. And coupled with his rather scholarly 
attainments there seems to be a strong strain of 
practicality, and, if the evidences of a brief con- 
versation are worth considering, of what a Yankee 
would call "backbone." Altogether, one is in- 
clined to congratulate Costa Rica upon its chief 
executive. 

Later, Colonel Prestinary escorted me through 
the penitentiary and the barracks. The former 
is a large stone building on a hill near the town, 
whose walls were badly shattered by the earthquake 
of 1 9 10 that destroyed Cart ago. One feature of 




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COSTA RICA 'S CAPITAL 



the establishment is a lesson in national health 
precaution. Prostitution is licensed and women 
are medically examined throughout the country, 
those who require attention being shipped to the 
capital and locked in a department of the peni- 
tentiary, where they remain under medical treat- 
ment until recovery. At the time of my visit 
there were 145 men and 43 women in the peni- 
tentiary, about half of them for minor crimes, as 
the building is also a municipal jail for San Jose. 
Long term inmates are sent to an island near 
Puntarenas, whence little seems to leave but the 
guitars the prisoners make, beautiful instruments 
that are sold for a song. 

There are two chief barracks in the city, both 
of which we visited. Militarism is a minor con- 
sideration in Costa Rica. The total enrolment 
of the army is but 1 70 privates and 70 officers ! 
The soldiers seem to be drawn principally from 
among the Indian boys; on a guess, I should say 
the average age of the recruits is less than eighteen 
years. Most of them are barefoot, and all uni- 
formed in blue jeans and cotton coats, with red 
stripes on caps and sleeves, to lend a touch of 
military colour. In the simple manoeuvres and 



82 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

drills we saw, the boys handled themselves very 
fairly. Whether they can shoot I don't know. 
Their officers say they have ample marksmanship 
practice, but with the economy of military expendi- 
ture it seems doubtful if much ammunition is 
used. 

In the storehouses and arsenals there is a sur- 
prising lot of reserve equipment. For instance, 
in one building I chanced into, there were tucked 
away two modern Krupp batteries, each of six 
guns, three similar batteries of German make, a 
couple of Escoda four-gun batteries, twenty 
Maxims, and eight Colt rapid-fire gtms. All 
artillery is limited to light pieces, for mountain 
transportation, and to rapid-firers, designed for 
street fracases. The greatest surprise of all, how- 
ever, was the discovery of 10,000 1910 model 
Mausers, a similar number of older Mausers, and 
5000 excellent Remingtons. 

"Oh, they might come in handy some day — in 
Nicaragua, for instance," said the Colonel. 

Costa Rica entertains a very lively dislike for 
its northern neighbour. It will never result in 
offensive action, however, but rather indicates 
that Costa Rica is ready — and quite willing — to 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 83 

take care of itself should any one step on its tiny, 
but proud, national toes. 

Military service is supposed to be compulsory 
for three months. However, it is doubtful if more 
than a very small percentage of Costa Rica's 
youth receive the ordained training. They have 
the officers — the skeleton — for a goodly army, and, 
as indicated above, the equipment. 

"We can put 53,000 soldiers in the field in thirty 
days," was the boast of a grizzled commandante. 
Perhaps they can. 

In addition to the manual of arms and regular 
drill work the boys have the benefits of well con- 
ducted barrack schools, where they receive in- 
struction in rudimentary mathematics, geography, 
hygiene, and simple military field work. The 
youngsters are bright faced and smiling, for the 
most part. They seem to have a genuine pride 
in being "real soldiers," and instead of the brief 
military service being an arduous duty, to be 
escaped if possible, it appears to be quite popular. 
The honour of their job is the only pay the bare- 
foot heroes receive. 

All of this orderly, happy — even kindly — mili- 
tarism is quite different from what one encounters 



84 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

in the other repubHcs. Conditions in Honduras, 
for instance, are not badly illustrated by a popular 
story which relates that the reigning "president" 
desired to increase the enrolment of his standing 
army. He needed volunteers, and needed them 
badly. So he requested so many "volunteers" 
from a certain district, for immediate delivery. 
The jefe politico, or governor, forwarded the re- 
quired nimiber of patriots. Also, he sent the 
following message to headquarters: "Herewith 
find twenty volunteers. Please send back the 
ropes." 

The budget for 191 2 gives an idea of the finan- 
cial side of the government. The total expenditure 
called for is 8,610,359 colones, or about half that 
many dollars. Of this 207,999 goes for "foreign 
relations," a sum nearly twice as great as the 
upkeep of the military system or of the schools. 
Many Costa Ricans recognise the absurdity of 
the little nation burdening itself with the host of 
representatives it maintains in foreign countries. 
The only essential diplomatic offices it actually 
needs are those in the neighbouring Central Amer- 
ican republics, and, perhaps, at Washington. 
But, like that of its neighbours, Costa Rican pride 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 



insists that its foreign relations be cared for with 
pomp and ceremony. Which costs money. 

An instructive commentary upon things as they 
are in Costa Rica is contained in the appropriation 
for "Musicas Militares de la Republica. " This 
item, which means the public and military bands, 
receives 203,539 colones, more than is devoted to 
the upkeep of prisons. 

Music is the beginning and the end of social 
life and amusement for the rank and file. Every 
one gets an extraordinary amount of pleasure 
from the many concerts that are given at the 
open-air band-stands in the plazas of San Jose, 
and by the less pretentious and less accomplished 
bands in the smaller towns. 

There is one substantial reason for all this 
music. It pleases and amuses the "peepul." 
It makes them, happy. Incidentally, I suppose, it 
keeps them out of mischief. Under this head, it 
certainly is worth the hundred thousand dollars 
annually spent upon it. 

It is an education, too, and a real delight. 
Think of every one having the privilege of hearing 
the best band and concert music. In fact, think 
of not being able to get away from hearing it! 



86 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

A delightful sort of popular pastime, isn't it? 
The children are brought up on Grand Opera and 
lovely lilting Spanish tunes, vivacious and alluring 
beyond words when one listens of an evening 
under the star-crowded tropical sky, with flowers 
around the benches, picturesque palms and strange - 
leaved trees whispering in the breezes, and the 
human stream of pretty dark-eyed women and 
natty men filtering past, couples arm in arm, 
talking softly about those endless matters that 
couples discuss the world over, even without the 
accompanimxcnt of such an utterly romantic 
environment. It all makes a Yankee sorry for 
the Northland folks at home. Our giggling Co- 
ney Island crowds appear infinitely brazen and 
ill-mannered in comparison — which they probably 
are. Rag- time tunes, murdered by rag-time play- 
ers, seem an insult. All in all, an evening on 
the plaza— any Spanish town plaza — when the 
military band dashes into the vibrant strains of 
Wagner or gently wanders through the dreamful 
labyrinths of Puccini, is a first-class antidote for 
a superabundance of impatient Yankee get-up-and- 
get-ness. It is also the most charming experience 
in the world. Administer to the general New York 



COSTA RICA'S CAPITAL 87 

business public, for instance, regular potions of 
do Ice far niente tropical life, properly compounded 
with Spanish music, starlit nights in flower-scented 
plazas, and, perhaps, just a suspicion of dark-eyed 
native beauty for the romantically inclined, and 
the result cannot be but beneficial. I '11 warrant 
there would be fewer breakdowns, and that "nerve 
specialists" would howl for a "protective tariff" 
against such panaceas! 

We North Americans have something to learn 
from our easy-going Southern neighbours. Or 
perhaps is it that we have something to un-learn? 




CHAPTER V 
Banana Land 

leave the invigorating uplands of 

San Jose and plunge down into the 

banana belt along the Atlantic is 

like abandoning the Alps for a 

Turkish bath. That sounds overdrawn, does n*t 

it? It is n't. 

There are parlour cars on the Limon road, and, 

if I remember aright, a ruinous rate for their use. 

But ruinous rates are justifiable on the one hundred 

miles of road that connect the capital with the 

Atlantic port, for the expense of maintaining the 

line at all is enormous. During the rainy season, 

from December to June, washouts are the order of 

the day. The curves and cuts are amazing. The 

ravages done to clay hillsides by the untameable 

Toro Amarillo, or Yellow Bull, river, is a thorn in 

the side of engineers. Even in the matter of ties, 

difficulties are encountered; most of those used 

now are of metal — wooden ties either insisted on 

88 



BANANA LAND 89 

taking root and sending forth inconvenient shoots, 
or rotted away with depressing speed in the wet 
ground. 

"Stick an umbrella in the ground over night and 
you'll have an umbrella tree in the morning," 
was the way a fellow-traveller expressed the pro- 
ductivity of the soil. He did not exaggerate hope- 
lessly, either, for all the fence posts grow, so that 
instead of modest fences one sees sprawling forests 
marking the division of fields. 

The road is owned and operated by the American 
United Fruit Company. (Some people say the 
same thing about the entire country!) The con- 
ductor was from Pennsylvania, and seemed 
supremely bored with his duties. How he survives 
the daily transition from the 5000-foot heights to 
the sea-level muggy heat is a marvel. Perhaps 
his constitution is constructed on the plan of a 
chameleon's hide. 

First the train climbs from San Jose to Cartago, 
the old capital. To-day the town is little more 
than a depressing succession of ruins, for on May 
4, 1910, an earthquake laid its devastating 
hand upon the classic old place, and churches and 
homes came tumbling down upon the inhabitants. 



90 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

amid scenes of undescribable horror. Reports say 
that 1 104 persons were killed. It was also the 
death-blow of Cart ago, for there seems little proba- 
bility that anything can resuscitate the physical 
demolishment and the human demoralisation. 
Once before, in 1841, the city was destroyed. 

On the left of the tracks, northward, we saw the 
flanks and the lofty summit of the volcano Irazu, 
responsible for the catastrophe, a noble peak, 
1 1 ,603 feet in height. Its summit is said to be one 
of the two places in the world whence one can see 
both the Atlantic and the Pacific. The other 
vantage point is the peak of Acatenango, in 
Guatemala, loftiest of all Central American moun- 
tains, from which I later saw the two oceans 
myself. 

After passing for some miles through aristo- 
cratic and immaculate coEee fincas, the cultivation 
of the country became less and less noticeable, 
and its abrupt ragged wildness more and more 
apparent. Down, down, plunged the train, round- 
ing innumerable hair-raising curves, hanging over 
perilous cliffs whence yellow- watered rivers were 
visible far below, rollicking along rocky beds 
seaward. Ever and anon there opened up a view 



BANANA LAND 91 

less restricted by overhanging hills and encroach- 
ing forests — surpassingly beautiful vistas of the 
tousled countryside, with hills and valleys, river 
gorges, forests, and occasional fields prodigally 
intermingled in the wildest, rarest scenes the eye 
could wish to feast upon. A land lavish of colour, 
too, as of topographical variety; there were greens 
beyond number in the forests, and all the gayest 
tints a rainbow ever dared disport on the flower- 
broidered, sun-soaked hillsides ; there were browns 
and greys in the giant tree trunks, and brighter 
browns in the sloping clay banks; there were 
birds, gorgeously caparisoned, and men and women 
and beasts; and over all was the glorious blue 
sky, with infinitely white and fluffy cloudlets, 
the loafers of the tropical heavens, lazily shifting 
hither and thither at the beck of the orderly 
breezes. 

Then come forest depths, swamps, and Banana 
Land. Finally, the road emerges from the low- 
lands and skirts the Atlantic, last seen by us at 
Colon, on the Isthmus. 

Limon is a banana port. It has excellent 
wharves, the United Fruit Company offices, stores, 
and quarters, a handsome hospital on a breezy 



92 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

point (also U. F. property), and a nondescript 
conglomeration of shacks, miserable stores, and a 
comfortless hotel or two. There is also a most 
beautiful little plaza place, darkly cool beneath 
a veritable forest of huge banyan trees ; a concrete 
sea wall, with blue Caribbean water slapping 
against it and dingy crabs sidling along it, and, 
most notable of all, an unescapable air of concen- 
trated, high-pressure activity. Limon, you see, 
is American; and the Americans there have a 
distressing lot to do that has to be done in a 
particular hurry. Semi-occasionally they get the 
fever, or something worse, and have to lay off in 
the hospital — or worse. After which (if it was 
only fever) they come back and throw in the high 
speed again. For the world is learning to eat 
bananas, and the world must be supplied, just 
now to the tune of about 60,000,000 bunches 
annually, 9,000,000 of which come from Limon. 

One gets the same sort of a surprise when seeing 
busy Limon after week^ in lazy Central America 
that hits one between the eyes when first emerging 
from the utter, lifelong deadness of a Panamanian 
jungle and encountering the paroxysm of energetic 
efficiency that our engineers are directing at 



BANANA LAND 93 

Culebra Cut, or where an army of unexampled 
genius is raising the vast concrete monoHths of 
the Gatun Locks, obHvious of the chmatic and 
historic "thou shalt nots" of the torpid environ- 
ment. 

Through the courtesy of officers of the Fruit 
Company we were extended the welcomed hos- 
pitality of the " Lodge " at Limon. The American 
employees occupy rooms on the second story of 
the big concrete building which houses the offices 
below. It is much like a barracks, far from luxu- 
rious, but clean, well kept, with shower baths, 
broad balconies overlooking the plaza and the 
harbour, and a dining-room with white table-cloths, 
sugar free from ants, and ice in the drinks one 
chooses. 

Our host had a charming little Spanish girl wife. 
Also, a newly arrived baby. The young mother 
proved a delight, with a charming naivete, height- 
ened by an elusive pronunciation of English words 
and peculiar little liberties with grammatical 
construction. 

''I am maree twenty-five months," she ex- 
plained. "For the first year I have no babee at 
all, an' I am heartbreak, for the marry life with- 



94 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

out the babee eet is sad, I think. Then, later, I 
am very seek, an' go to my mother in San Jose. 
Then comes the babee, an' makes everything so 
happee, an' come to Limon back, an' my husban' 
he too love my babee almos' as much as I do. 
For dee boy he ees like his fader — what-you-say — 
so, so — when he smile — so nice to look at." 
Here a coquettish smile which in itself was 
decidedly "nice to look at." 

It was all pretty, but the way she told of their 
romance was best of all. 

"Once, when I was a girl in San Jose, the autres 
say: 'You are so gay, so queek, so fon' of the 
dance an' sing that you sure-ly will marry a 
Mashar. ' You know what we call American 
boys? No? Mashar — they come to see Spanish 
girl, they kiss, perhaps once, perhaps twice, den 
go 'way to de States an' marree some one else. So 
I say: 'No, I will never marry a Mashar,* an' 
I tink dat too. But then one day I come to 
Limon to see frens sail in steamer. An' afterward 
at the hotel I am eaten soup, an' in comes Mashar, 
an' I tink he has nice face. Then I — what do you 
call it? — flit? No, not flit. You know; I smile, 
he smile — an' — we-do-not-know-each-other. " This 



BANANA LAND 95 

last in one continuous rattle. ''Ah! Dat ees it — 
* fleeret ' — so — we flirt. 

"Well, he sit near an' eat his soup. I see him 
look at me. I look again ; he is not eat his meat. 
Next I look an' smile — so leetle. He does not eat 
his ensalada. He seem to watch all the time me, 
so I look away, which is right. When I am 
finish my cafe he rush away, like mad. Then 
presently he come again with a young man whom 
I know by the arm, who say: 'Senorita, confer 

the honour of your acquaintance upon Senor ' 

So, queekly he walk with me away, we two, to the 
balcony, an' all evenin' he talk so nice to me, an' 
at las' he geeve me a little ring which I always 
wear, an' I geeve him one of mine, an' — an' — in 
two months we are marree. An' soon, perhaps, we 
go to New York. " 

And there in tabloid form you have the romance 
of the American Office Man, on |8o.oo a month. 
Let us hope the sequel may be as happy as the 
denouement. 

After the pleasant supper, upon the concrete 
balcony of the "Lodge," we sat talking with our 
queerly mated host and hostess and drinking in 
the visual delights of the tropical twilight time. 



96 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Directly below was the park, an indiscriminate 
tangle of dark banyan trees bordering it, their 
branches standing out against the paling opales- 
cence of the sky. Encompassed by the pictur- 
esque trees lay the little park, bright with gay 
tropical plants and shrubs, with patches of emerald 
grass, about and through them winding walks 
with a senorita and her escort strolling here and 
there, the former invariably with a gay shawl 
about her shoulders. To the right, seen through 
branches and over the cobbled street, are the red, 
corrugated iron roofs of the storehouses and wharf 
buildings, and beyond them the wharves them- 
selves, with the steamer masts and funnels rising 
over the buildings, which hid the hulls from view. 
The smoke rises straight toward the cloudless 
sky; not a breath of wind stirs the foliage in the 
park. Beyond is the surf, whose monotonous 
rumble is the only music for the scene, shrilly 
interrupted now and then when some banana 
train rattles down the street and out upon the 
wharf, disastrously upsetting the peace of the 
universe with clanging bell and shrieking whistle. 

Even after the darkness blots the view from 
sight, the trains keep up their intermittent tur- 



BANANA LAND 



moil, for there is a steamer to be loaded, and so all 
night thousands of bunches of bananas are carried 
beneath our balcony, on the first relay of their 
varied journey from the shadowy depths of their 
jungle homes. 

That evening we had our introduction to the 
Costa Rican chapter of the banana story, only we 
commenced at the end of the chapter, instead of 
at the beginning. Theoretically, one should first 
meet the banana while it hangs on the tree — where, 
by the way, one encoimters it upside down; for 
in its native jungles the banana does not behave as 
we of the north know it, with its length decorously 
curved downward, but instead points heavenward 
in a quite unexpected manner. However, as 
intimated, we studied the fruit as a Chinaman 
reads — from finis to preface. In the comer gro- 
ceries of the homeland we had seen the bunches, 
flyspecked, yellow, green, and dingy brown. That 
marked the ultimate period of their production — 
the transitory stage that speedily merges from 
production into consumption when the youngster 
with a nickel happens along and gets his ''two 
for." Now, at Limon, we saw the banana being 
started on its way for that comer grocery and the 



98 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

pushcarts. The next day we had an opportunity 
of viewing the actual raising of the fruit. 

The name "Limon" means, in Spanish, "citrus 
fruit. " However, lemons and oranges figure little 
in the affairs of modern Limon, whose chief claim 
upon fame is the fact that from it are shipped more 
bananas than from any other port in the world. 
More than 9,000,000 bunches were exported from 
it in 1 910, and that enormous ntimber would have 
been greater still had not unfortunate floods played 
havoc with some of the best producing districts. 

Do you realise, by the way, that if you failed 
to eat three dozen bananas last year you did not 
get your share? Back in 1910 over 40,000,000 
bunches, or more than 3,000,000,000 bananas, were 
imported into the United States. Forty years ago 
few people indeed could boast of having even seen 
a bunch of bananas, far less tasted the fruit, and 
yet within the last decade our consumption of the 
*' treasure of the tropics" has doubled, and two 
years ago the amount paid by the public for this 
now everyday luxury was close to $35,000,000. 

All of which hints at the commanding import- 
ance of the banana in the southland, and shows 
why a Central American pilgrimage that did not 



BANANA LAND 99 

include at least a cursor}^ visit to its haunts 
would be indeed incomplete. 

Limon is owned, heart and soul, by the United 
Fruit Company. Perhaps that statement should 
be modified — yes, assuredly. For retrospection 
convinces us that as a matter of candid fact 
Limon has no soul; a banana shipping port, ex- 
isting between banana swamps and the Carib- 
bean Sea, is devoid of soul, from the very nature 
of the case. However, the physical appurtenances 
of Limon bear the brand of the V. F. C, just 
as it is hinted Costa Rican officialdom also does. 
Suffice to say, in this connection, that the Amer- 
ican corporation has done more for Costa Rica 
than it ever could or would have done for itself, 
and that the universal custom of throwing mud at 
the top man is as fashionable in Central as it is 
in North America. How many of us, for instance, 
have heard it said that "Wall Street dictates to 
Washington"? The truth in one instance is 
probably as accurate as in the other. 

The Fruit Company has blessed itself with 
infinite system and skill. Thanks to the fact that 
its foreign operations keep it without the pale of 
domestic trust legislation, and because there are 



100 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

not and probably never can be any international 
laws regulating such daily occurrences as restraint 
of trade and throttling of competition in several 
lands at once, the clever Yankee corporation has 
flourished amazingly, its tropical, as well as its 
northern affairs, guided by wise heads in conserva- 
tive Boston town. 

The company owns lands, and on them raises 
its fruit. It owns railroads, in Costa Rica and 
elsewhere, and on them carries the bananas from 
farm to wharf. It owns its shipping facilities, 
wharves, yards, and harbours, and loads its perish- 
able products upon the scores of steamers of its 
''Great White Fleet." Its vessels carry the fruit 
to the markets of the world, not alone to the cities 
of the United States but also to the British Isles 
and Europe. And finally, from its own wharves 
and through its own warehouses, it wholesales 
the bananas to jobbers who distribute them 
through the length and breadth of the land. 

The present President of Costa Rica, Ricardo 
Jiminez, is said to have lost popularity with the 
average citizens of the republic because he has 
continued in the footsteps of his predecessors and 
has smiled upon the Gringo, permitting him to 



BANANA LAND loi 

develop his properties and his concessions un- 
molested. It appears that the Jiminez party got 
into power on a more or less tacit understanding 
that there would be a shake-up as regarded the so- 
called "American invasion," and the "average 
citizen," who sees the American getting rich and 
himself no richer, naturally has a chip on his 
shoulder, after the prevalent custom of average 
citizens. 

For instance, it was whispered that the Fruit 
Company would be obliged to pay an export duty 
upon its bananas of three or more cents a bunch. 
Previously, it had been paying nothing at all. 
That sounded excellently well to the average 
citizen. It makes no difference if your A. C. 
lives in Kansas or Costa Rica, is a socialist or an 
ardent Central American patriot, his instincts 
are the same— if you see a head above the general 
level take a swipe at it. That, we believe, is an 
axiom of Democracy. But the big export duty 
on bananas never got beyond the campaign-talk 
point. To-day the Fruit Company is paying one 
cent a bimch, and it is n't even doing that on the 
fruit it buys, because the Costa Rican banana 
raiser found that his contracts with the company 



102 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

provided that he himself pays "all export 
duty" while the company generously agreed to 
care for the import duty in the States. A fair 
enough division of an unpleasant task, surely! 
And incidentally, as the company raises only about 
30 per cent, of the bananas it exports from the 
republic, the owners of those other 6,000,000 
bunches not unnaturally disliked to see a high 
export duty come to life, as its payment would 
come out of their own pockets, thanks to the 
clever provision of those old contracts. 

Perhaps this influential body of interested 
planters had a lot to do with it. There are wheels 
within wheels in Costa Rica. As one well informed 
Fruit Company employee put it, "God and Minor 
C. Keith alone know what goes on behind the 
scenes." 

At all events, it is known that after the elections 
a mild bill was drawn up, presumably by local 
representatives of the corporation, providing for a 
two cent export tax. The story goes that this 
was submitted to the head Boston office. Details 
the chronicle relateth not, but the essence of the 
Back Bay men's reply was that it was considering 
no such deals and certainly making no bargains 



BANANA LAND 103 

with a Costa Rican Congress. Incidentally, the 
hint was dropped that the Boston office v/ould 
watch with interest local developments; their 
plans were undecided; they were considering large 
expenditures and developments in Costa Rica. 
Also, they were operating in many other places, 
and were considering with equal fervour enlarging 
elsewhere. And, of course, it might be necessar}^ 
somewhat to abandon Costa Rica if the trade there 
was made unprofitable. Just a hint, but it must 
have bom fruit. Yery gently and with no fuss 
or feathers the new legislature placed the duty at 
one cent a bunch, and ever\'body smiled, except 
a few average citizens, who are said to retain a 
sore spot in their patriotism. The election in 19 14 
will show "who 's who, " and, perhaps, why. But 
it won't make any special difference to the banana 
exporters because the export duty holds for twenty- 
five years ! 

Minor C. Keith, above referred to, is the back 
bone and the real originator of the United Fruit 
Company, which now has vast ramifications almost 
beyond behef . Keith cam^e to Costa Rica a poor 
boy. The stor\' of his fortune-miaking is a tale 
of work; hard m.anual work at first, for he had 



104 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the courage to do himself what he later directed 
others in doing. He and his brother, John C. 
Keith, married Costa Rican girls. Minor now 
spends most of his time elsewhere, among other 
enterprises constructing a railroad in Guatemala, 
but John C. remains in Costa Rica, apparently 
wedded by choice to the pretty land. 

On the previous day the superintendents of 
the various districts know exactly how many 
bunches they will be called upon to provide for the 
ship whose time of arrival is reckoned by wireless 
to the hour by the superintendent of export at 
Limon. The mandadorSy or heads of farms, in 
turn are notified how many bimches each farm 
will be called upon for. 

Of course, the nimiber of bunches, and the time 
of their arrival at the cutting stage, has been 
reckoned weeks and months in advance, as ship 
and cars and market must be arranged, and all 
fruit must be cut at the physiological minute, for 
if it is left on the stalk even a few days too long it 
loses all marketable value and becomes a dead 
loss. The superintendents and their helpers be- 
come so proficient in appraising the crop that on 
one district the estimate upon walks covering more 



BANANA LAND 105 

than 12,000 acres was within 2000 bunches of 
being correct. The individual growers who sell 
to the company of course do their own estimating, 
and are called upon at each steamer sailing for the 
amount of ready fruit they have on hand. 

At daybreak, the Jarnaicans are in the field and 
the bunches are cut. " Nines'' and over are 
called a "bunch" and are paid for at the rate of 
thirty-one cents, out of which the grower, if the 
fruit be purchased from outside "walks," pays 
the export duty of one cent. An eight -hand stem 
corresponds to three fourths of a standard, and a 
seven-hand stem to half a bunch, and are paid for 
accordingly. 

Before noon, the box-car trains, with crews of 
loaders, pick up the bunches, which have been piled 
beside the track under a covering of leaves to pro- 
tect them from the sun. By evening that same 
fruit is being loaded upon the steamers which will 
be under way to the north before dawn. This is 
called "twenty-four hour fruit." It is shipped 
chiefly to Boston and New York for quick con- 
sumption. It is, of course, further ripened before 
picking than the fruit shipped to New Orleans for 
trans-shipment to the West and Canada, and than 



io6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

fruit bound for England. This latter is usually 
*' forty-eight hour fruit," that number of hours 
elapsing between the time of cutting and the time 
when the steamer leaves the Limon wharf. 

The scene on the wharf at a night loading is 
interesting in the extreme. 

Most of the company's vessels have four hatches 
and at each is an automatic loading contrivance 
which travels up from the wharf to the deck of the 
ship, a broad belt, in constant motion, carrying 
the fruit. A line of singing and leisurely Jamai- 
cans bear the bunches from the box cars to the 
loader, where they give an extra heave of their 
shoulders and the burden falls accurately upon the 
belt. From the deck to the bottom of the hold, 
in the average large steamer, there are from eight 
to twelve handlings. Formerly the bananas were 
shot down an incline to men at the bottom who 
packed them, but this method was found to injure 
the fruit somewhat, the side that came in contact 
with the slide getting "burnt. " While the bruise 
did not injure the fruit to any extent, it spoiled 
its appearance, thereby cutting market values. 

So now all the loading is accomplished by hand. 
Each hatch has two separate crews, one loading 




C! 
a> 

J3 9 



^5 



BANANA LAND 107 

the port and the other the starboard side. A 
series of platforms, something like stairs, extends 
down from the deck through the hatches, each 
about four feet below the level of the next highest. 
On each are a couple of darkies, who pass the 
bunches down to the team below. At the bottom 
are Spaniards who carry the heavy bunches — they 
will weigh about sixty pounds each, on the aver- 
age — to other Jamaicans, who pack them for the 
voyage. 

I made a long visit to the hold of one of the 
Fruit Company's ships, accompanied by one of its 
always courteous representatives. It was cold 
down there — about fifty degrees, as compared with 
seventy or more on the dock. The cavernous 
interior was illuminated with electric lights. The 
workers sang, and all seemed to take a pleasure 
in their task, except perhaps the Spaniards who 
did the carrying from the foot of the human stair 
to the packers. One reason for the apparent 
popularity of the night work may have been that 
the Jamaicans got fifteen cents an hour for it 
as contrasted to ten cents for day work. The 
Spaniards got twelve and one half cents, and in the 
day eight and one half. At the time, they were 



io8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

packing what they called ''three stands and two 
flats." No, that is not a musical term. It sim- 
ply means that three tiers of bunches were packed 
upright, one upon the other, and on top of these 
two more layers were placed horizontally. 

Just before daylight the next morning we heard 
those workers going home, when the ship was 
loaded and under way. A more varied or im- 
earthly conglomeration of sound than that pro- 
duced by a pack of paid-off Jamaicans, with the 
work day behind them, it is impossible to imagine. 
To be wakened by it in the depths of the night can 
be Hkened to the last act of a nightmare, laid in 
the land of the damned, where a chorus of all the 
chaotic noises of this earth are combined into a 
fiendish melody. 

But soon enough the time of dreams and Jamai- 
can revelry ended, to the brazen debauch of a 
nickelled alarm clock, whose call gave us barely 
time to swallow the inevitable, and excellent, 
coffee, and hasten aboard the six o'clock local 
train for Zent, where we were to be guests on one of 
the Company's banana plantations for the day. 

The ride to Zent takes an hour. The alleged 
first-class coach is half of a car chiefly devoted to 



BANANA LAND 109 

the transportation of darkies. There were many 
labourers and Jamaicans at the station and on 
the train, the women being particularly notable 
because, as they were returning from shopping 
visits to the metropolis of Limon, they were natur- 
ally bedecked in all their newly purchased finery. 
One buxom coloured lassie was envied much in the 
eyes of her sisters, thanks to a vivid hat of rain- 
bow hues and broad scope which she bore proudly 
on her head, while in her hand she carried the 
discarded creation of the last season. 

On the way to Zent the coughing little train 
passed through ''Boston, " "Chicago," and ''New 
York." For all the farms are named, and the 
titles of the big cities seem popular with these 
clusters of labourers' shacks, all but lost in the 
jungle of banana leaves, in the saturated depths 
of the semi-swamp lands. 

Mr. Walter Fletcher, Superintendent of the 
Zent division, to whom we bore a letter of official 
introduction, proved both a delightful host and 
a well-informed lecturer on the ways of the banana 
in its native haunts. 

Leaving maps and data in his office after a cur- 
sory examination, in which we gained some idea 



no SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

of the extent of the Fruit Company's holdings and 
the diversity of its operations, we sallied forth in 
the miniature motor-car with which the Superin- 
tendent travels about the crisscrossed railroads 
of his domain. It was a four-wheeled affair, with 
one cross seat facing frontward, and a sort of 
catch-on rumble behind, where the one- Jamaican- 
power portion of the motive equipment hung on. 

With the Superintendent at the throttle and my 
wife and me sandwiched in on the rest of the seat, 
we started along the track, "Bryan," the negro 
assistant, starting us with a vigorous shove, and 
then landing with a running jump upon his meagre 
perch in the rear. 

"Switch!" called the Superintendent, seeing a 
wrongly set switch ahead. . 

We were approaching it at a good six-mile gait, 
or more, and the chugging motor was working 
itself up manfully. 

"Bryan, switch!" No sooner were the words 
spoken than a miracle happened, a real modern 
tropical miracle. A Jamaican negro ran! 

With a jump, Bryan was out of his seat and rac- 
ing along beside us, headed for that switch bar 
as if his life depended upon it, and our little car 








••"i^^ 



ij£nM£. 



" Horseless carriages " in Central America 




Superintendent Fletcher and the motor car from which we viewed the 
Zent banana farms 



BANANA LAND in 

was the Twentieth Century Limited, whose delay 
for a minute meant national disgrace or docked 
pay or something equally fatal and important. 
It was a good run, that initial sprint of Bryan's. 
Any ten-second collegiate dasher might have been 
proud of it, especially in that even as early an hour 
as seven is not notable for coolness in tropical 
banana lands. Yet with all his speed, I would 
have wagered sixteen to one that our Bryan could 
not beat us to the switch until he actually had done 
so, the tracks were shifted with one practised 
heave of the bar, and we were speeding onward 
down the proper steel alley, with our grinning 
henchman on behind. 

In such manner we rode through countless 
acres of the banana farms. In the Zent district 
alone are more than 30,000 acres, about 1250 of 
which are in actual cultivation. The company 
originally purchased most of this land from the 
Costa Rican government for about sixteen colones 
a hectare, or about $3.25 an acre. All accounts, 
by the way, are kept both in hectares and colones 
and in dollars and acres. A hectare is a land 
measure equivalent to 2.47 acres, and is used in 
all Spanish- speaking countries. 



112 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

In all Costa Rica the Fruit Company has about 
25,000 acres under cultivation, owning in all more 
than 100,000 acres. 

In the Zent district there are twenty- two farms, 
each with two white men in charge, a mandador, 
or overseer, and a time-keeper. The mandadors 
are housed very comfortably, and paid from one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars a month, 
in addition to which they get free rent, fuel, light, 
and servants, emoluments which the Superin- 
tendent reckoned as representing an addition of 
fifty per cent, to salaries. 

As we rattled along the tracks our guide talked 
of the country, its products and its possibilities. 
Having lived for eleven years in Jamaica and Costa 
Rica, and in all that time having been sick only 
nine days, he lacked the chronic tropical habit of 
damning the climate. 

"It all depends upon how one lives. If you are 
careful, eat the right things and eat them in mod- 
eration, drink little, and know how to take pre- 
cautions, there need be no trouble for an average 
man. My wife, too, has been here and in Jamaica 
for ten years, and she and our three boys, bom 
during that time, have never been sick. " 




A typical tropical vista 



BANANA LAND 113 

Healthier looking little chaps I never saw. An 
English governess, just arrived, was to begin their 
education, there in the heart of the torrid wilder- 
ness. A splendid concrete tennis-court and a shower 
bath indicated one reason for the family health. 

I asked about the profits which are supposed to 
await the hard- working young man who abandons 
the beaten paths and goes to banana raising among 
the malarial swamps. 

**Yes, there are big profits for many — and dis- 
aster for many more. You may say that a man 
deserves big reward for coming here. Perhaps he 
does, and certainly if he knows how to win it, it 
is here waiting for him. The fundamental trouble 
is that so many come to the banana countries with 
two thousand dollars and no experience. They 
inevitably get the experience and lose their money, 
if they start on the wrong tack. Instead of working 
for some one else for a few years, until they have 
picked up the business, they start in for themselves, 
invariably going back to England or the States 
without a shilling. And, of course, many are 
buried, and malaria gets such a hold on others that 
they are glad to sell out and leave before it 's too 
late." 

8 



114 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Probably every one near Limon is told the story 
of a young Welshman who came to Costa Rica 
with nothing, nine years ago, and lives abroad 
while his banana lands net him some $20,000 
annually. He is under thirty and did it all him- 
self by hard work and a little luck. But as there 
are few lands seeking buyers these bonanza tales 
get little circulation. 

The work is all done by Jamaicans, the Costa 
Ricans not being able to withstand the climatic 
hardships of the lowlands. Practically everything 
is done by contract. Darkies working with the 
contractors usually get one dollar and twenty -five 
cents a day, day labourers about ninety cents. 

There are five distinct steps in the cultivation of 
new land for the banana. First , ' ' underbrushing, ' ' 
or clearing out the underbrush. Second, the land 
is ''lined out," or roughly surveyed into fifteen 
foot squares, the trees being planted fifteen feet 
apart, each with two hundred and twenty -five 
square feet of space, one hundred and ninety- 
three to the acre. Third, the trees are planted, 
slips or shoots from other trees being used; for 
long before there is any record of the banana it 
ceased to have a seed, and now, peculiarly enough, 



BANANA LAND 115 

retains not even a trace of such a method of 
reproduction. Fourth, the large trees are felled, 
lopped, and cleared away. Fifth, a drainage sys- 
tem is devised, no small problem in a territory 
but fifteen feet above sea-level although twenty 
miles inland from Limon. To plant average raw 
land and properly prepare it costs about one 
hundred dollars a hectare. Twelve to eighteen 
months after that expenditure the first returns will 
come, under normal conditions. 

At first, the novice feels some hesitancy regard- 
ing the nomenclature of banana lands. Shall he 
call them "farms," "plantations," "ranches," 
"groves," "orchards," or what? Technically 
speaking, each of these titles is incorrect. "Ban- 
ana walk" is the true name, the initiated tell 
you; "farm" or "plantation," however, does well 
enough, and is far less a damning evidence of 
' ' greenness " than it is to call a farm a farm, instead 
of a ranch, west of the Missouri. 

The early morning ride on our funny little car 
was a pleasant experience and not only afforded a 
comprehensive view of the supply place for the 
million push-carts and corner groceries of America 
but it also opened up some really entrancing 



ii6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

glimpses of the tropical growth and of the hot, 
humdrum life of the typical tropical workers. 
The trees and the verdure were more attractive 
than the social barrenness hinted by the encom- 
passing jungle walls. 

Overhead were the red fruits of the Acbee tree, 
gay in contrast to the dull greenery of their parent 
leaves, and queer as they are pretty, for not until 
they are ripe and by splitting open have allowed 
their poisonous gases to escape are they safe to eat. 
Crotons, dragon plants, caledias peculiarly vivid, 
morning-glories, zenias, marigolds, palm^s, glad- 
iolas, poinsettias, sword ferns, begonias, cocoa- 
plants, cannas, coleus, hybiscus, cardinal-flowers, 
and a score of other brilliant and dainty shrubs 
and flowers flourished promiscuously in the door- 
yards of the negroes, and were arranged with 
comparative formality in the garden of the Super- 
intendent's attractive home, where our rapid 
journeying ended at a most welcome ten o'clock 
breakfast, whose menu, it must be admitted, was 
start lingly unexpected. The meal of course was 
called "breakfast," after the Spanish custom. 
However, it was neither Spanish nor breakfast, 
but a rare combination of a Scotch breakfast, an 



BANANA LAND 117 

English dinner, and a tropical dejeuner. There 
was oatmeal, hot and much of it, with the unusual 
accompaniment of real untinned cow's milk; 
bacon, eggs, steak, with egg-plant, potatoes, onions, 
rice, and yampi. The latter is an event in itself; 
it is a species of white potato, imported from 
Jamaica, thinner skinned and far more delicate 
than our Irish product. 

After two rich desserts there came monkeys — 
to be examined, not eaten, of course. One was 
white faced, a marmoset, and the other coal black; 
both were highly affectionate, of the tenaciously 
clinging variety. Also we examined bottled speci- 
mens of defunct snakes, gathered in many tropical 
lands, including the terror of the local swamps, 
called in Costa Rica the Jumping Goff, and the 
Coral Snake, reputed most dangerous of all, but 
from whose bites only two per cent, of the banana 
labourers stricken had died, thanks to heroic 
medical treatment. 

Finally, in the afternoon, we boarded the up- 
train at Estrada for San Jose. 

The bored Pennsylvania conductor greeted us 
warmly, casually mentioning, as we skirted a 
recent washout with snail' s-pace deliberation, that 



1 18 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

our locomotive had turned turtle twice during 
the month. In addition to our friend the con- 
ductor, we found the same towel in the observation 
car lavatory. The conductor, we ascertained, had 
been on the run for five years. 




CHAPTER VI 

BacK in San Jose 

ESPITE that towel, it was delightful 
to wind up the tousled mountain- 
sides from the steaming banana 
country to the crisp upland air. 
One of the pleasant incidents of the long seven 
hour journey is a stop at a little station where old 
women crowd to the car windows offering pine- 
apples for sale. They have the fruit cut into 
slices, which you gingerly take up in your hands, 
vainly hoping that the spattering juice will not 
leave irradicable stains upon your clothing. It 
usually does, but the fruit is worth the price. 
Sweet, juicy, fragrant, — surely there is no edible 
quite so appetising on a hot day as an absolutely 
fresh and ripe pineapple. 

As a *' chaser" to the pineapple we invested in 
some "pejdalles.'' Despite their unpronounce- 
ability they make interesting eating. About the 
size of a small russet apple, they resemble yellow 

119 



120 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

and over-ripe tomatoes, the kind we delighted to 
throw at each other in the short-trouser stage of 
our development; the inside resembles a sweet 
potato in appearance, and tastes much like a mild 
form of chestnut. In the centre is a pit, about the 
size of a plum pit. While a bit dry, the fruit is 
good, at least for those with an inquiring turn of 
palate. 

An even more fascinating local concoction is 
called ''gueso de almendras.'' As its name indi- 
cates it is "cheese of almonds, " and is a rich, solid 
paste, oily, much of the appearance of hard cream- 
cheese, and with the most deliciously delicate 
flavour imaginable. It is sweet, infinitely indi- 
gestible, and, we were told, is imported from 
Spain. A pound which I attempted to take to 
San Francisco melted in southern Mexico. What 
is worse, it also melted on my best Panama hat ! 

But to return to that train luncheon. It had 
an amusing prelude. The train stopped at the 
station mentioned, and most of the rabble alighted. 
Being inexperienced, we sat idly by, watching our 
better informed fellow-passengers gorge themselves 
with the dainties and undainties proffered, for a 
nominal consideration, by the old women in the 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 121 

booths on the station platform. Noting that we 
bought nothing, and perhaps suspecting that we 
could not afford the liixury of a meal (though how 
could they have known that I was a newspaper 
man?), two native gentlemen who sat across the 
aisle came to our assistance. At their feet was 
a huge feed bag. It is perhaps worth mentioning 
that there were also, in the aisle and on and un- 
der the seats immediately appropriated by them, 
several chickens captivated as to their legs, a 
distinctly yellow ''houn' dog," a pair of leather 
saddle-bags, and a couple of children, whose 
bare legs commingled indiscriminately with the 
above inventoried collection. 

The gallant gentlemen unearthed the feed bag. 
From it they fished out a multitude of things 
edible, chief among which were mushy tortillas and 
meat of an historic hue. In addition there were 
pastries and bread and fruit of one kind and 
another, all fairly well en omelette, and all on an 
intimate footing with the clothing that comprised 
the balance of the bag's contents. The delicacies 
were first dusted — a hygienic and necessary opera- 
tion — and then offered to us. The medium 
through which the offer was made to my wife was 



122 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

a barefoot, bashful girl. Of course we accepted. 
I am ashamed to relate that the ultimate fate of 
the tortilla and sour cheese is a matter of secret 
history ; if one should search out a certain persist- 
ent bristle-backed hog who noses under the trains 
at that particular station, it is possible that the 
mystery might be solved. 

San Jose was reached at dusk. A brisk journey 
in a licensed but unseaworthy hack brought us to 
the hotel. And there the ** homecoming" was 
notable. 

Leaving my wife to go directly to our room, I 
made a detour through the lower patio, or court- 
yard, to inquire for mail and to secure hot water 
for a very necessary shave. The bearded cavalier 
who presided behind the combined bar and office 
counter, and who might have prospered mightily 
as the heavy villain in an old-fashioned ''meller- 
dramer , ' ' delivered a tremendous amount of Spanish 
at me. It was most unvillainish Spanish. If it 
was greeting, it was a flowery and expansive one, 
even for a Spanish cavalier. Not knowing what 
else it could be, and my Spanish being as non- 
existent as his English, we progressed no further, 
and instead of endeavouring to unravel the rhetor- 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 123 

ical mystery I proceeded on my way, clasping the 
ever-precious diminutive mug of ''agua caliente,'' 
and meditating on the vagaries of hfe that should 
make hot water the one hot article difficult to 
obtain in a land where the mercury never takes 
advantage of the lower reaches of the thermometer, 
and cooks revel in tongue-torturing seasoning. 

However, the blow came, all unsoftened by this 
well intentioned and uncomprehended explanation 
by the misplaced villain. 

"There 's some one in our room, " said my wife, 
as I emerged into the upper hallway. 

There was. The room for which we were pay- 
ing, and in which we had left our clothing and 
trunks, and whose only key we fondly supposed 
was at that minute reposing in my trousers pocket, 
was occupied. The "some one" developed into 
a well intentioned gentleman and his wife. Later, 
they admitted hailing from New Jersey. But 
ultimately we forgave them everything, so cour- 
teous were they in coming to our assistance. 

Just at that juncture the Senora was out. Nat- 
urally. It is part of a landlady's business to be 
absent when storm clouds darken the domestic 
horizon. The bearded barmaid was helpless. 



124 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

conversationally and otherwise. He was, however, 
apologetic, in vigorous Castilian, and the more 
voluble his abject dismay the more efficient, I fear, 
became my own exercise of plain old-fashioned 
American — the kind our grandfathers probably 
used when they had trouble with the Indians 
at Plymouth Rock and thereabout. I said a great 
number of things about Spanish hotel customs 
that would have been better left unsaid. Not left 
unsaid because they were unmerited, mind you, 
but because they were all lost and wasted. It is 
a sad tragedy to swear and not be understood ! I 
often wonder if that heavy villain really thought 
I, too, w^as apologising, as I thought he was! 
But that opens up complications — perhaps he was 
returning me as good as I gave him ! 

Finally, about the eighth round, Senora appeared. 
She was a good-looking Spanish lady, dark, fiery, 
and of ample though graceful proportions. 

She was amazed; she was aggrieved; she was 
apologetic. She was everything that could be 
desired; at least so she seemed through the 
medium of an English-speaking negro-boy waiter, 
who established himself as a sort of official inter- 
preter. 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 125 

''You may have another room," the boy- 
translated. 

Whereat I delivered an impromptu oration upon 
the sacredness of integrity, explaining at length 
that I had engaged that room for a week and 
intended not only to pay for it, but also to have it. 
I enlarged upon thfe fact that we had left all our 
belongings strewn about the stolen apartment, and 
that no one had a right to use it even if we remained 
absent a month, as long as we footed the bills. 
Finally, calling upon the Monroe Doctrine in holy 
witness of the justness of my position, I demanded 
immediate eviction of the interlopers. 

By this time the entire hotel retinue had 
gathered, as well as the guests and every one within 
earshot — which included a generous area! The 
attraction of our dispute had become triple, a 
three-ringed circus, in fact, as the Americans, who 
had dressed after the first guns of our approach 
disturbed them, formed the centre of one group, 
and my wife of another, while I, retaining the 
amateur interpreter (he was very amateur, it may 
be remarked) as I would have cherished a priceless 
treasure, occupied the centre of the arena. Lin- 
guistically, it was Babel; every one talked, in 



126 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

several languages, and gesticulated each in his 
or her own preordained manner. It is all very 
funny to think of now, but at the time it was as 
gravely bitter as a nominating convention. 

Finally, Sefiora capitulated. We obtained our 
room. I confess I never quite knew what became 
of the evicted couple. Sefiora, after all, was but 
a woman of business; believing that we were to 
be gone several nights, she had improved the 
golden opportunity by selling her cabbages twice. 
It was unkind for us to have returned. 

Domestically, the remainder of our two weeks 
in San Jose was undisturbed. Each morning the 
sun played hide-and-seek with the snowy clouds, 
shadow and sunshine flitting across the rounded 
green hills that greeted us from our window, look- 
ing out over the tiled roofs of the city. The 
towers of the cathedral were close at hand, and 
near by, too, was the plaza, whence the music of 
the band wafted up to us in the evening. 

Just below that window was an alley. It was 
something of a miracle, was that alley ; there were 
chickens in it, and ducks and rabbits; also, there 
was swill enough and to spare, which lasted only 
until the animals had made away with it. The 




From the window of the San Jose hotel we saw the cathedral spires across 

red-tiled roofs 




In Managua, capital of Nicaragua. Presidential offices on right 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 127 

chief scavengers, however, were the vultures, 
great black birds with wicked hooked noses, beady 
eyes, vast claws, and the sepulchral appearance 
of professional mourners. They were fat and very 
lazy, moving with grave deliberation, excepting 
only when the appearance of some tidbit made a 
quick dash necessary, to avert its appropriation by 
some less gifted chicken or slow-brained duck. 

The meals at the Hotel San Jose were patterned 
on the universal gastronomic schedule of Central 
America. 

First there is "cafe," or almuerzo. It comes 
any time from daybreak to ten o'clock. It con- 
sists of coffee, con leche (with milk) or con 
agua (made with water only), and nothing more 
substantial than a roll or some pan dulce, 
(sweet bread or cake) , anointed usually with limp 
butter that first saw the light of day in Denmark, 
and travelled thence in small tins. The state of 
the butter's relaxation, as we called it, was a sure 
test of the time it had been opened. Also, there 
were other tests, not necessarily visual, and less 
pleasant. 

Comida comes next. It is "breakfast," and 
is perpetrated usually between ten o'clock and 



128 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

noon. It is extraordinarily ample, there being at 
least three meat courses at the better hotels, 
introduced by a substantial soup, embellished by 
many vegetables, and ending with some sort of 
very sweet dessert, or fruit, if you insist upon it. 
Usually it is the traveller alone who eats fruit in 
a tropical fruit country, for the natives seem to 
care little for what we treasure as rare delicacies. 
Central America runs to meats, and poor meat at 
that, the unholy habit of eating almost new-killed 
beef being nearly universal, chiefly because cold 
storage facilities are practically non-existent. 
Pork and mutton are notably absent, cow products 
comprising the entire gamut. 

Cena, the supper of Spanish land, much resembles 
the breakfast. There is, perhaps, a little less to it. 

Sunday in San Jose may be made a dehghtful 
day, if the taste of the traveller be not too strenu- 
ous. For San Jose is not a city of "sights," nor 
is it crowded with picturesque bits, whose search- 
ing out offers endless fascination for the connois- 
seur in things beautiful. I do not mean that the 
proud little capital lacks charm, or that it is devoid 
of interest. Rather, it is limited. Compared 
with the historical wealth of Panama, for instance, 




Jamaicans cutting the bunches. The adjoining plants will replace the stalk 
cut, producing bunches in rotation 




" The scavengers are the vultures, great black birds with the sepulchral 
appearance of professional mourners " 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 129 

it offers little to the antiquarian, or tourist bent 
upon seeking relics of the "goode olde days." 

Take coffee at nine, say, though that is a late 
hour to be under way in the morning. Doubtless 
you will eat the remainder of the French bread, 
neglected the previous night, and doubtless the 
butter will taste curiously like cheese, as usual. 
But the coffee is excellent and the hot milk plenti- 
ful. Also you may have oranges or bananas, 
though the eating of these weeds of the land indi- 
cates that you are a foreigner, as no native of the 
orange countries considers this common fruit as 
worthy of note. It has been well said that the 
dweller in stock countries does not eat grass, and 
why should a housekeeper in a land which exports 
nine million bunches of bananas think of including 
this imiversal fruit in her menu? 

While you are at ''coffee" the band will have 
been playing in the central plaza, before the 
cathedral, inviting you to wander there and Hsten 
to the excellent music, as it always is in Spanish- 
speaking countries. We did not see or hear a 
phonograph in San Jose; doubtless there is too 
much really good free music to have need or desire 
for home products of the ''canned" order. 



I30 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Between the numbers played by the large mili- 
tary band the music of the organ in the cathedral 
drifts out across the park, in rather faint and staid 
competition to the lively tripping airs of the band- 
stand. 

The cathedral, said to be the finest in Central 
America, is large and perfectly kept, evidently 
receiving a generous support. Outside are con- 
ventional fluted pillars en fagade, approached by a 
low flight of broad steps. Externally, the building 
offers little that is unique or mentionable, being 
little more than a square of grey-white plastered 
walls, massive but unelaborate, with fagades of 
pillars in front and on the sides, while natty little 
parks abut the lateral approaches. 

You enter the cathedral. Several hundred 
women — they are almost all feminine, these 
worshippers — their heads covered with coloured 
shawls, kneel at the benches that extend from 
the door down the chancel to the altar. There, 
long candles glimmer almost gloomily among the 
recesses, elaborate with their equipment of divine 
figures and carvings, while priests, in white and 
black and purple robes, move about in the shadows 
with slow solemnity. 




At prayer in a Guatemalan church 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 131 

As the notes of the organ swell and billow 
through the heavy air with the magnetic, mellow 
timbre of this most appealing of all of man's music 
makers, the dull voices of the priests mount with 
them, chanting from the dim depths of the remote 
altar regions, while the shawled heads bow lower, 
the barefooted men kneel, and the women cross 
themselves with quick little frightened gestures, 
only too suggestive of the grim respect with which 
they regard the exercises of their mistress, Mother 
Church. 

Then out from the railed-off stairs and low plat- 
forms below the altars steps forth a slow procession 
led by a purple-gowned priest, with boys clad in 
white on either side, each bearing a tall taper, 
while the priest himself holds aloft a golden crucifix. 
Behind are other priests, and in the rear a vener- 
able old man totters blindly, his thick feeble lips 
moving slowly in words of prayer, his shaking 
hands making the cross sign over his breast and 
bowed forehead as he advances. Two priests are 
at his side, supporting his robes. A younger one, 
in white, walks immediately in advance of him, 
swinging an ornate incense pot from which clouds 
of subtly sweet smoke rise, shrouding the venerable 



132 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

leader and sifting out over the worshipping con- 
gregation in fiat waves that finally merge into the 
shadows of the upper regions of the great edifice. 
This procession walks down one aisle, across the 
back of the church, and back to the altar on the 
opposite side. And all the people bow and kneel 
and are doubly humble. 

It is impressive, and instructive. It is not, of 
course, so majestic, nor nearly so awe-inspiring 
as similar ceremonies in the larger and richer 
Roman churches of the old world, as in Italy, for 
instance. But the lesson lies not so much in the 
ceremony itself, as in the aspect of the worshippers. 
They are reverent ; that is true, and it is also true 
that reverence is an excellent virtue, and is per- 
haps the backbone of many a nation or race. 
But here, if I mistake not, is almost universal 
reverence without intelligence. The Church is the 
mistress of the poor of Central America. If they 
ever knew, they know no longer what it is that they 
reverence, these uneducated poor of the Tropics, 
and when reverence gets to that pass it becomes 
fear, or something so closely akin to fear that it 
deserves no better name. And that unreverenced 
fear is the foundation of the Church's strength in 



BACK IN SAN JOSE 133 

the Central American lands wherein it retains any- 
great prestige and position. 

In contrast to the solemnity of the cathedral 
service is the gay vista of the outer sunlit world 
seen through an open side door; a sunny bit of 
flagged flooring, a glimpse of green foliage, a palm 
outlined against the blue sky. It is hard to remain 
in the sombre church interior, with that fraction of 
the outdoor loveliness beckoning, even though the 
slim Senorita across the aisle does glint the merest 
hint of a smile with her dark eyes, as a chance 
movement momentarily brushes the demure shawl 
from about her pretty, oval face. 

The outdoor wins. And in the sun again, you 
wonder if, after all, it was mere chance that moved 
the shawl, provoking the opportunity for that 
fleeting glance, or something more. Quien sahe? 
Romance may lurk even in the shadow of Mother 
Church, in Spanish land. 




CHAPTER VII 

THe Ocean HigH-way 

HE one and only broad highway of 
Central America is the water that 
bounds it. There are no inter-re- 
public railroads, few waggon roads 
worth mentioning and none worth travelling, ex- 
cept as a last resource. The most used sea-path 
is that up the west coast, because, with the excep- 
tion of Costa Rica, nearly all the important cities 
have their access from the Pacific. 

Up in Washington, D. C, there is a beautiful 
marble building which is the home of the Pan- 
American Union, and incidentally houses an ela- 
borate relief map of Central and South America. 
The Union is, nominally, a sort of publicity con- 
federation of the various Latin countries of the 
western hemisphere. 

The only grudge that I hold against the Union, 
it may be well to state before proceeding further, 

134 




o 

■4-» 

g 
w 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 135 

is that one of its courteous officials, who asserted 
that he was quite famiUar with the territory, con- 
vinced me that it was essential for my social hap- 
piness that I drag a North American dress suit 
through Central America. He impressed me with 
the fearful importance of the matter. He made 
me beheve that without that funereal badge of 
gentility I would find myself floundering hope- 
lessly in Latin land, a sort of soul officially damned, 
adrift without possibility of social salvation. And 
I believed him. Not only that, but I toted that 
blessed suit from the Tivoli hotel in Panama to the 
St. Francis in San Francisco, and never once did 
I wear it. Not once. And yet we met a president 
or two, several near-presidents, and not a few of 
the socially elite. So take the advice of one who 
has suffered: never inflict a dress suit upon 3^our- 
self in the Tropics. 

But about that relief map. Down in a cool 
big room, back of a cool Spanish-style courtyard 
wherein there are a fountain, some palms, and 
some uncomfortable chairs, it holds the centre 
and the attention of any one who chances to 
see it. It is perhaps thirty feet long. On both 
sides of Central America are the oceans, as is 



136 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

fitting and proper. Waltzing up and down the 
coasts is a hemstitch affair of dotted lines that 
represent the course of the steamers which are 
scheduled to play between the ports neatly marked 
out on the map. 

It is all very impressive. I took my first Central 
American jaunt with — or on — that map. It was 
the easiest thing imaginable — on the map. 

''Here is Port So-and-so," explained my phi- 
losopher and friend of the dress suit hallucination. 
''Let's see — oh, yes, an excellent hotel. Quite 
comfortable. Route to the capital? Yes, indeed, 
enjoyable in the extreme. From here you go to — ' ' 
and he pointed to another harmless looking point 
where the hemstitch lines converged at an alleged 
port. 

Altogether, it was delightful. I made that entire 
Central American trip, with trimmings, without the 
slightest d fificulty — on that map ! And the other 
information — the printed kind. It was just about 
as satisfactory. Steamers left one place and arrived 
at another with vast (printed) precision, while 
train schedules were equally satisfactory. It was, 
indeed, as easy to lay out an itinerary for Central 
America, I found, as it would have been for Europe. 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 137 

With this difference only. Elsewhere it is often 
possible to follow out itineraries that have been 
concocted. In Central America it is not. A map 
is a pleasant thing with which to aggravate one's 
satiable curiosity, especially such an impressive 
map as that of the Pan-American Union. But 
place not thy faith in maps, nor in time-tables 
and sailing schedules. The last, especially, are 
elastic and can be distorted endlessly. South of 
Mexico they are roaring farces. It is said that a 
Pacific Mail sailing schedule reads as accurately 
upside down as right side up. Which quite possi- 
bly is true. 

But don't misunderstand. All this makes 
Central American travel doubly delightful. Every 
bit of it is distinctly an adventure. You can never 
know just where you will be at a given time — 
which is good for a North American. The point 
is simply that one should go into Central America 
with one's eyes open. 

And as we ambled up the western water highway 
and cut our eye-teeth in things Central American, 
all this began to sink home. So we settled back 
in our steamer chairs under the awnings, sipped 
lemonade, and watched the oily sea slip stern ward 



138 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

at an hourly rate of some nine knots, while we read, 
ruminated, and talked in appropriate proportions. 

North America's most picturesque early history 
was enacted south of the Rio Grande, the river 
that separates us with such astounding abruptness 
from a territory peopled with races utterly divorced 
from us in tongue, inheritance, and instinct. 
Between Mexico and Panama were enacted the 
dramas of the gallant conquistador es and the 
ungallant rogues of the Spanish Main, a century or 
two before the Alleghanies ceased to be the western 
deadline of our own incipient republic. 

And rich as is its historical heritage, no territory 
on this hemisphere has been so well endowed by 
nature; the wealthiest products of the temperate 
climes thrive as neighbours to the lavish tropical 
growths. For those to whom the productive 
vagaries of the Tropics hold special charm. Cen- 
tral America is indeed a happ)^ hunting-ground, 
and one no less attractive to the seeker of beautiful 
scenery and that illusive desideratum styled ''hu- 
man interest. " 

But Central America is a book bound in a mis- 
leading cover. The binding is dingy and unin- 
viting; the interior pages are those of an edition 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 139 

de luxe. In that respect it remarkably resembles 
a Spanish house, which, as a rule, has about as 
unprepossessing an exterior as readily can be 
imagined, and as pleasing an interior. Usually 
little is to be seen but bleak walls, broken, if at 
all, by a few barred windows, while the door is 
apt to be about as hospitable in appearance as the 
studded entrance to some mediaeval castle. But 
once past the frowning exterior and you come 
upon a smiling fairyland: a sunny patio, bright- 
ened with flowers and shrubs, a sparkling fountain, 
and a picturesque colonnade with bright tiled 
flooring and, perhaps, exquisite carvings; ham- 
mocks, luxurious chairs, and the most charming 
hospitality in the world, all reinforced by such 
diversified complements as gaily plumed parrots 
and dark-eyed sefioritas — and there you have a 
Spanish home, from within. 

So with Central America. From its ports you 
see it at its very worst. A hot white beach, a 
hotter flat town, a spindle-legged iron wharf with 
corrugated roofed warehouses, an uncertain rail- 
road, and a superabundance of pompous officialdom 
comprise the Alpha and Omega of the usual south- 
land port. Just behind this unenthusing intro- 



140 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

duction, even if actual experience has not proven 
its discomforts beyond peradventure, you know 
that the coastal plain extends back a score or so 
of miles; all this plain is low, all of it is hot and 
soggy, much of it is semi-swampy, and none of it 
is a white man's abiding place by choice. There, 
in a crude summary, you have what most chance 
travellers see of Central America, which is one 
great reason why Central America is maligned. 

But beyond the gatewa}^ lies a Paradise. All 
the best of Central America, historically, scenically , 
economically, politically, and socially, is hidden 
in the highland regions of the continental Cor- 
dilleras. The cities are tucked away among the 
hills, from seventy to one hundred miles inland 
from the two coasts. The reasons for their loca- 
tion are double. First came health and comfort, 
for the uplands, with altitudes ranging from two 
thousand to five thousand feet, offered a climate 
almost ideal. Secondly, when the capitals of the 
present republics were in the making the two 
shores were ravaged by piratical plunderers, so 
that naturally the wealthy little municipalities 
saw fit to remain modestly removed from the 
highroad of these freebooters. 




Ill 

III 

II-- 
g s s 









13 

a 
o 

pq 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 141 

The results of the present location of the popula- 
tion centres are likewise double. Because of their 
isolation from water transportation — the only 
carrying factor that figured at all importantly in 
the upbuilding of the earliest American towns — 
and the extreme difficulties of any transportation 
at all over the muddy and hilly trails, the growth 
of the Central American cities has been stunted. 
During the last decade railroads from the coast to 
the interior have in a great measure solved the 
old difficulties, adding an advantage, however, 
which in many instances has been more than offset 
by the economic demoralisation of the common- 
wealths by political turmoil and blood-sucking. 
A second result was that in their efforts to escape 
attacks by sea and the ravages of -the lowland cli- 
mate, cities grew up where later volcanic upheavals 
wreaked havoc with them. Such was the story of 
the proudest of them all, old Guatemala City. 

Getting away from ''happy little Costa Rica" 
had proved something of an undertaking, thanks 
to the necessity of unwinding a goodly amount of 
red tape, which process chiefly took the form of 
unsuspected official charges that cropped up for 
liquidation at the last minute. 



142 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

There were some funny incidents connected 
with that embarkation, one of which concerned 
our trunks; trunks are more apt to supply travel- 
lers' tragedies than comedies, however. When we 
went inland to the capital the trunks had been 
left in the custom-house at Pimtarenas, and while 
I was busy about town securing the necessary 
official stamps, passport vises and other things 
necessary to make our departure legal and possible, 
my wife attempted some changes in the contents 
of the trunks, replenishing our bags from them. 
When I got back to the wharf I foimd the trunk 
trays spread about her and a score of pop-eyed 
unlookers regarding with intoxicated interest every 
move of the strange white lady who chose to do 
her packing in the custom-house. It had proved 
a deHghtful and, doubtless, an instructive hour 
for them. She told me that every time she essayed 
to lift a tray, some dusky gallant offered his serv- 
ices, while at certain junctures she had become 
so embarrassed that some transfers of lingerie and 
other affairs had been postponed until my return 
and inhospitable mien urged the audience to seek 
amusements elsewhere. 

An old priest was among the motley assortment 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 143 

that boarded the good ship Acapulco. He was 
wrinkled and yellow, with quizzical blue eyes 
regarding the worid helplessly through great gold- 
rimmed spectacles. His robe was the usual black 
flowing affair, bound round the waist with a girdle, 
and decorated at the wrists with lace that was 
evidently very antique, judging both by its texture 
and its griminess. On his head perched the con- 
ventional beaver hat, hot, low- crowned, and broad 
of brim. But his feet were the climax of his ecclesi- 
astical attire ; in themselves, they were normal pedal 
extremities, but in some way the good father had 
placed the right shoe upon the left foot, and vice 
versa. They were enormous yellow shoes, quite 
new, and they squeaked most prodigiously, evi- 
dently to the secret discomfiture of the padre and 
the delight of such onlookers as noted them. 

On these boats one can meet every species of 
mankind. They are the social clearing-house of 
the Tropics. 

Among our fellow-passengers on one of these 
brief port-to-port trips was a Congressman. He 
had been looking over the Canal, without special 
injury to either it or himself. He was a notably 
epigrammatic fellow, for a Congressman. 



144 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

"Nine tenths of what we call piety is nothing 
but indigestion, " said he, in commenting upon cer- 
tain traits of a young Englishman whose sanctity 
annoyed him. The Britisher objected to cards 
in the smoking-room on the Sabbath. Perhaps 
the Congressman was right. 

Fresh from the Canal, he had many Canal stories, 
among them a true incident of a foreman who nar- 
rowly escaped punishment under a rule that forbids 
the use of profanity to employees by their superiors. 
The foreman in question was a notable offender. 
The case had gone hard against him, and it was 
established beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 
language he had unlimbered upon a negro labourer 
was, to put it mildly, painful and free. 

"Well, have you anything to say for yourself?" 
asked the judge, after a laborious trial. 

"Just this, your honour, " grinned the Irishman. 
"I used them words all right enough, only you 
see, it was n't to an employee— 1 discharged the 
nigger just the minute before I began ! " And that 
settled the case. 

At dinner, the first night out of Punt arenas, a 
Chinaman created a little rumpus. It was a 
racial affair, and interesting. When he entered 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 145 

the room, every seat at the main table was taken, 
except one at the left of the captain's vacant place, 
that officer not having put in an appearance. The 
Chinaman looked about the room. He had his 
choice of going to an obscure corner, where he 
might have been unmolested, or of '' starting some- 
thing. " He chose, the latter course, perhaps be- 
cause the chip of having been ousted from Costa 
Rica (Celestials are barred there) was still on his 
shoulder. Then he struck trouble. The chief 
steward quietly asked him to vamoose. 

''Why?" asked Mr, Chinaman. 

The steward explained that he could eat at the 
second table; it was customary, it appears, to 
serve "foreigners" at the second sitting. The 
Chinaman objected — strenuously. His eyes grew 
narrower even than God had made them, a bit 
of red flicked in his yellow cheek, and his voice rose 
shrilly. He was a very mad Chinaman. He stood 
on his rights ; he had paid full fare, and why should 
he not get the same service as the others? 

But the steward steered clear of the ethics of 
the question. What he wanted was to get the 
Chinaman out, with, or without, a scene. Assist- 
ant stewards sidled up, and all at once the inter- 



146 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

loper was persuaded to abandon his position, 
protesting. As he was bundled up on deck his 
voice came back; he was swearing manfully, in 
excellent American. Thereafter he was a very 
sullen Chinaman; noiseless, murderous. Also, he 
ate at the second table. 

"Where do you draw the line?" I asked the 
steward, later. 

** Heaven knows. A matter of instinct mostly, " 
he replied. Yes, they fed negroes with the rest 
of the passengers, he admitted that. One had to, 
for apparently every fourth Central American, 
or thereabouts, has negro blood. It is a matter of 
comparative hues. Yourself and your uncle may 
be as dissimilar, from a chromatic standpoint, as 
Miles Standish and Topsy — but both may be 
large coffee shippers on the Pacific Mail. And one 
must respect good customers, especially in these 
days when German boats are cutting in on the 
business! 

There you have a little instance that spells a 
big story. That Chinaman was educated, well 
dressed, and well mannered. But he was taboo. 
The man seated beside me at the captain's table 
had kinky hair, smelled outlandishly, and ate 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 147 

with his knife. However, he probably shipped 
coffee. 

Some twenty-odd lazy hours out from Punta- 
renas we came to San Juan del Sur, the southern- 
most of Nicaragua's two Pacific ports. Behind 
a precipitous headland lies a little crescent beach, 
which faces a harbour perhaps half a mile wide at 
its open mouthy more picturesque than satisfactory, 
as it is quite open to blows from the west. There 
are a few houses, chiefly hidden by palms, a tiny 
wharf with some iron -roofed buildings behind it, 
and a few tubby lighters anchored in the roadstead. 

Herr Himmel, the patriarch of the community, 
came out to the Acapulco. He is a venerable 
Santa Claus individual, past eighty, and has 
boarded every Pacific Mail boat for thirty years. 
Besides being agent for the line, he seems to be 
about everything else ashore, practically owning 
the town. He ran away from Germany as a young- 
ster, went to sea, and in the course of his wanderings 
landed at this remote spot in Nicaragua, where he 
settled down. When he came there was nothing 
else in San Juan but himself. Now it is a thriving 
community of five hundred or more, and a con- 
siderable distributing business is carried on with the 



148 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

interior, notably with the town of Rivas, which 
receives all its supplies on mule-back from San 
Juan during the dry season when the roads are 
mediumly passable. As an evidence of his activity 
in lines not entirely commercial, it is said that 
every child in San Juan resembles Herr Himmel. 
That may be gross slander. 

At five on the afternoon of the 23d of December, 
we came to anchor in the little bay. San Juan 
had suffered from a superabundance of excitement 
that day, as the steamer San Juan, southbound, 
had left but a few hours before our arrival, and 
as every one who wanted work had had a hand in 
unloading her and had been paid off, there was, 
of necessity, a jubilee in progress and further 
labour was out of the question. 

So we watched the revellers make fast the 
lighters and go ashore for the fiesta, while every 
one from the chief mate down to the deck steward 
expressed himself concerning Nicaraguan char- 
acteristics. The San Juan had brought home 
mail which would be waiting at Corinto, our next 
port. And as most of the passengers were to get 
off at Corinto, they were all anxious to arrive 
there in time for Christmas. All of which inter- 




Corinto, Nicaragua, boasts the rare luxury of a wharf 



-.^ 



Along the ocean highway of Central America 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 149 

ested the folks ashore not at all. It was their 
privilege as well as their pleasure to keep us tied 
up in the harbour as long as they chose. 

"The trouble with these people, " said the mate, 
as he fretted about the forward deck, ''is that they 
have only two signals. One is ' Half speed ahead, ' 
and the other is ' Stop. ' And I think they prefer 
the latter to the former. " 

It was after nine the next morning, "the day 
before Christmas," when a lighter came leisurely 
out to us, and the unloading work began. 

After a little bargaining, a native boat took four 
of us ashore, at fifty cents a head for the round 
trip, which doubtless was exorbitant. We had 
hoped to get much fruit and perhaps some choco- 
late and candy for Christmas celebration, but the 
best we could do was to purchase tinned jam, of 
English make, and a glass of lemon drops, remin- 
iscent of the dark ages. 

The most active beings in San Juan are the 
pelicans. Hundreds of them conduct a rattling 
fishing business along the shore, the loafers riding 
sleepily just beyond the rough surf and the workers 
soaring about overhead, perhaps twenty feet above 
the water, until they sight the fish they want, and 



150 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

then shooting down perpendicularly into the sea, 
they strike the surface, giving a peculiar twist of 
their heads and opening their huge maws. There 
is a white splash, the big birds disappear partially 
for a second or two, and then up come their clown- 
ish faces, positively smiling with satisfaction. The 
big receptacles beneath their bills are filled with 
water, which they let out in some clever way until 
only the fish remain, whereupon they swallow their 
hard- won meal reflectively. 

Shortly after dark we "heft anchor" and left 
the harbour. Even this delayed get-away was 
effected only because the stevedores received a 
military impetus, so to speak. They had gone on 
strike when we approached, demanding double 
pay for Simday work, and entirely refusing to do 
anything for any pay whatever on the night of our 
arrival. So the next morning along came the 
malcontents, with a handful of soldiers herding 
them, the latter armed with loaded rifles which 
forcibly suggested the advisability of rustling 
freight. It proved an admirable system, for not 
only breaking strikes but also for making the 
strikers work. Its success in any coimtry but 
Nicaragua may be doubted. 



THE OCEAN HIGHWA Y 151 



If you approach Corinto at daylight, it is well 
worth while to be out on deck even before the 
dawn. If it happens to be Christmas morning, as 
it was with us, the approach is all the finer because 
of the associations of the day. 

On the right, above the mists of the dawn that 
cling close to the sea, rise the mountains of the 
Cordilleras, graceful cones, dim and filmy at first 
and gradually hardening into deep purple out- 
lines against the delicate morning sky. They are 
volcanoes, all of them. One, Momotombo, loftiest 
of all the Nicaraguan peaks, is active, as is evi- 
denced by the smoke which slowly billows upward 
from the crater top. 

Corinto, chief of Nicaragua's ports, lies snugly 
behind a small island, very close to which the ship 
passes as it enters the secure little harbour, turning 
almost at right angles. Lowlands and swamps 
stretch back from the coast to the mountains, 
perhaps fifteen miles away, which rise directly 
without any foothill introduction. 

There is a wharf at Corinto, a rare luxury for a 
Central American port. The wharf company, I 
understand, has an exclusive concession, so it 
charges exclusive prices and gives any kind of 



152 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

service. However, even at that, it is far preferable 
to the usual lighters, of which more anon. Back 
from the wharf lies the little town, whose chief 
feature is its one "main street," which skirts the 
water's edge and affords a reasonable excuse for the 
" Hotel de Corinto " and the custom-house, wherein 
flourish Corinto 's two principal industries, namely, 
the enjoyment of liquid refreshments in the bar- 
room of the former and the handling of the port's 
business in the latter. There are a few other 
streets stretching toward the wooded and fiat 
hinterland, all grass-grown and most of them 
shaded by orderly rows of uruca trees. The 
narrow-gauge railroad that goes to Managua, the 
capital, meanders up one of these streets; it is a 
very dejected and uncertain little transportation 
enterprise, with a couple of antediluvian wood- 
burning locomotives, rusted rails of the vintage 
of 1880, and ties that have taken root. However, 
progress is in the offing for that railroad. A 
50,000-gallon oil tank, for fuel oil, was partially 
constructed when we were there, said to have cost 
some $40,000. Nothing was being done upon it, 
and it was said to have been in its status quo for 
many months, with prospect of many more. And 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 153 

it would be a little difficult to surmise just what 
could be done with oil, supposing the tank ready 
for it, until new locomotives and other expensive 
appurtenances had been added to the road's 
equipment. 

The first thing I did in Corinto was to try my 
hand at money changing. It was an eminently 
successful venture. I started with one American 
dollar; in ten minutes I had sixteen Nicaraguan 
hilletes. Nor am I a J. Rufus Wallingford. 
It was simply the rate of change — 16 to i. It 
must be quite satisfactory to live where it is always 
possible to have pockets full of bills, even if they 
are very dirty ones. A few years ago the exchange 
rate fell from 20 to 12 in three days, which indicates 
that to be a successful financier in Nicaragua 
requires both courage and activity. 

When we were there the United States Govern- 
ment was in temporary charge of the customs 
collections in Nicaragua. Our steamer landed a 
large gentleman, with a white collar and a red 
tie, who was to manage that Corinto custom- 
house for Uncle Sam. It was his ambition to 
place the Corinto system on a par with that of 
New York. Poor little Corinto — as if one New 



154 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

York custom-house was not enough for the entire 
universe ! 

The gentleman in question was bursting with 
energy and enthusiasm. He had never been in 
the Tropics before. 

"Things are going to move here. Believe me ! " 

That was the essence of his comment after his 
first glimpse of the lackadaisical system in vogue. 
When we last saw him he was actually running and 
disported a fresh starched collar. 

" I will bet you five gold dollars, " said the mate, 
"that when we strike Corinto on the down trip 
our friend will have come to earth. I '11 bet that 
no one in Corinto ever sees him go faster than a 
reasonable Central American walk after the first 
week. Did you see the natives look at him and 
smile?" 

I had noticed them and did n't take the wager. 

Corinto celebrated Christmas, and we tried to. 
I think Corinto was more satisfied with its per- 
formance than we were. Certainly the little town 
made a strenuous effort, what with band music, 
which was miserable in comparison with the excel- 
lent music of Costa Rica, and a general fiesta. 

It seems wrong to spend Christmas on a Pacific 



THE OCEAN HIGHWA Y 155 

Mail liner in mid-tropics. Think of sitting all day 
under the deck awnings, with the alternative of 
looking out over the breezeless water or of looking 
out over the breezeless land, in the meantime think- 
ing and talking of Christmas time in the States; 
of snow flurries, skating, stuffed turkey, and cran- 
berries ! It makes one very lonely and patriotic 
and hungry for " God's country" ; and in the mean- 
time that little chunk of ice perspires into oblivion 
and you wake from your tropical yule tide revery 
to find the limeade uncomfortably lukewafm. 

There was some genuine Christmas fun, though. 

A cable message that came to the chief engineer 
supplied most of it. It was from his home in San 
Francisco, where he spent a week every seventy 
days or so, and told him that a Christmas present 
had arrived in the form of a girl baby. So of 
course the chief was happy, and grinned apprecia- 
tively when some women passengers presented him 
with an elaborate assortment of gifts, created on 
the spur of the moment with much originality and 
a deal of unique workmanship. What with the 
impromptu presents, the happiness of the chief, 
and a case of champagne that the purser dug up 
for the occasion, there was merriment galore. 



156 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

That night, as I. chanced forward on the lower 
deck, I spied the new "dad," whom the ship 
had christened "Father Mooney, " reading with 
very evident glee a verse we had concocted in his 
honour. Truth to tell, it was pathetically little 
that the good-natured engineer got from his Christ- 
mas and the gift it had brought him in the far- 
away northland ; it is n't pleasant to wrestle with 
antiquated boilers, Mexican coal passers, and heat- 
sick stokers on a craft whose youth lies far back 
in the eighties, month in and month out, up and 
down the west coast, with home and Christmas 
babies two thousand miles away. 

So perhaps the chief was forgivable for swear- 
ing softly between grins, as he re-read "Father 
Mooney" in his stuffy stateroom under the flicker- 
ing draft of the electric fan. 



The chief he got a cable 

At Corinto, Christmas morn, 
Bringing him a message 

That he 'd been wanting long. 
An' when he read its contents 

His grin went clear aroun' — 
For Chief he 's got a present 

Way up in Frisco town. 



THE OCEAN HIGHWAY 157 



It 's true she 's not almighty big 

And she has n't any name — 
But Chief he 's "Father Mooney" now 

And he '11 never be the same. 

"Dear Dad," the new Miss Mooney wired 

The minute she was made, 
"I 'm off the. ways an' floating now, 

So don't you be afraid. 
My engines are the latest, 

My boiler 's coppered 'round, 
My speed is something awful 

An' my tonnage is nine pound. 
So I wish you Merry Christmas, 

An' hope, does Ma and me, 
That Captain '11 give the jingle 

So you '11 hurry home from sea." 



CHAPTER VIII 



Nicarag'ua and Honduras 




ICARAGUA and Honduras are ab- 
jectly "down and out," economi- 
cally, politically, and morally. 
Their notorious condition has too 
often been quoted as an example of Central 
America as a whole, which is eminent^ unfair. 

Costa Rica and Salvador, for instance, are in an 
almost totally different sphere, for both are com- 
paratively prosperous, mildly enterprising and 
decided^ stable. As to Guatemala, it is infinitely 
rich, so far as God has had to do with its equipment, 
and infinitely despoiled by a vicious governmental 
system, whose paramount characteristics are graft 
and oppression. But there is hope for Guatemala ; 
even a cursory acquaintance impresses that fact. 
Concerning Nicaragua and Honduras, information 
leads down a sadly blind alley as regards the future ; 
they represent the big problem of Central America, 
with which some one, sometime, must grapple, 

158 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 159 

and which can never be solved or cured, even 
partially, in any brief space of time or by any one 
single act of intervention or policy, be it of "dollar 
diplomacy" or of some more forceful variety. 
More on that head later, however. 

On the steamer I asked a shifty-eyed son of the 
southland, who would have made an estimable 
villain on the stage and doubtless was an inestim- 
able one off it, what was the difference between 
a revolutionist and a patriot. 

"Ah, Seiior, that is easy," was his grinning 
response. "A patriot is one who rebels and wins. 
The others we call revolutionists." 

Whatever the accuracy of the definition, it is 
certain that there have been patriots and revolu- 
tionists a-plenty in poor Nicaragua. Its political 
history — it has little of any other kind — is vastly 
complicated, and really can be reduced to one 
almost continuous performance of governmental 
handsprings, in which the "Ins" and the " Outs" 
have succeeded each other to power with bewilder- 
ing rapidity. In fact, president pro tern seems the 
only really appropriate title for the chief executive. 

Jose Santos Zelaya is the picturesque figure who 
dominates modem Nicaragua's story. He founded, 



i6o SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

and conducted, an atrocious system of politics, 
finance, and morals, whose net result to his country 
when he quit it in 1909 was political, financial, and 
moral destitution. The dictator himself won a 
fortune and the richly-merited title of the "Un- 
speakable Zelaya. " 

But Nicaraguan history began long before the 
dark ages of Zelayaism. In 1522, the cotintry was 
officially ''conquered" by Davila, who baptised 
natives by the wholesale and incidentally acquired 
from them a prodigious amount of gold. There- 
after for several centuries Nicaragua received 
further baptism of fire and sword at the hands of 
warring Spanish factions, under the guidance of 
fortune-seeking conquistador es. In 1822, when the 
Spanish dominion over Central America was 
shaken off, it is estimated that Nicaragua possessed 
probably 200,000 population; thirty years later 
one fourth of that number remained. An instruc- 
tive commentary upon the state of affairs that 
contributed to the depopulation is contained in an 
historical estimate of Manuel Antonio de la Cerda, 
the first Chief of State, of whom it is related that 
he '*was very similar to many of the feudal barons 
of the Middle Ages. He would smile pleasantly 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS i6i 

when the ears of his enemies were presented to him, 
strung upon the blade of a sword." Statesman- 
ship of that sanguine order, any one will admit, is 
not conducive to universal peace and plenty. 

In 1 85 1, and thereafter at intervals up to the 
time of the final determination in favour of the 
Panama route, Nicaragua came to the fore as a 
possible location for, at first, a trans-isthmian 
trade route and later for a canal. In the earlier 
years when Califomian migration made travel 
heavy and profitable, a laborious route was main- 
tained across southern Nicaragua, embracing an 
inland sail upon the water of Lake Nicaragua. 
The later ramifications of the canal dispute and its 
final adjustment are rather too complex to be 
touched upon here. Suffice to say that in 1902, as 
every one knows, Panama was chosen for the 
canal route, and the last hopes poor Nicaragua 
entertained of economic development in this 
direction went glimmering. 

Then there was the Walker expedition affair. 
That in itself deserves a chapter, instead of a 
tabloid reduction; however, this is not history, 
but a collection of travel impressions, to which 
an incidental background of historical fact may 



i62 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

lend interest, as its study did for us as we formed 
them. 

Early in the fifties one of the chronic revolutions 
broke out, after Nicaragua had withdrawn from 
the Central American Union and declared itself 
a republic with a president and most of the other 
appurtenances of republicanism. This time Hon- 
duras aided the revolutionists, who laid siege to the 
city of Granada, which was sacked after an eight 
months' resistance. Thereafter William Walker 
appeared on the scene. The story of his imique 
and turbulent Central American career is well 
told in the following paragraphs from Frederick 
Palmer's Central America. 

"Shortly before the raising of the siege Byron 
Cole, an American, had arranged with . . . the 
revolutionists for the services of three hundred 
Americans for military duty under the guise of a 
colonisation grant. . . . 

''On the strength of this, William Walker, with 
fifty-six Americans, arrived in June, 1855. . . . 
With the addition of one himdred natives, he 
marched against the town of Rivas, but was re- 
pulsed. . . . Six weeks later he captured Granada 
and made a treaty with the legitimista commander. 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 163 

Patricio Rivas was made provisional President 
and Walker commander-in-chief of the army. 
Everything was done to encourage the immigra- 
tion of Americans from California until, early in 
1856, there were some twelve himdred Americans 
capable of bearing arms in the country. 

"From the first Costa Rica was hostile to the 
influx of Americans, and in March, 1856, declared 
war against Nicaragua and the 'filibusters.' 
Walker at once despatched four companies of 
American, French, and German soldiers to Costa 
Rica, where they were defeated. . . . Meanwhile 
a provisional government was declared by Walker, 
and at the election held soon after he was chosen 
President and inaugurated at Granada on July 
13, 1856. 

''Three months later Guatemalan and Salva- 
dorian troops occupied northern Nicaragua, at- 
tacked Granada, and were joined later by Costa 
Rica and Honduras. Walker's men were hard 
pressed and his losses so heavy that in December, 
unable to hold Granada, which he had retaken, he 
destroyed it. . . . Walker saw the futility of 
further resistance and, sending for General Mora, 
brother of the President of Costa Rica, who was in 



164 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

command of the allied forces, he agreed to surrender 
to Commander Davis, of the American sloop-of- 
war St. Mary's, which had been lying at San Juan 
del Sur since early in February. ... On May 
I, 1857, Walker and his officers marched out of the 
town of Rivas with their side arms and embarked 
on the St. Mary's, followed by four hundred of 
their men. All were taken to the United States. " 

Some months later, during a bitter revolutionary 
complication that followed on the heels of Walker's 
eviction from Nicaragua, he thought he saw an 
opportunity to regain power there, and, evading 
the United States Government, landed at San 
Juan del Norte, and there he was seized again, 
and sent home. But he intended to subjugate 
Central America, did Walker, and with burr-like 
persistence came back again, this time to Hon- 
duras, in i860, where he was taken by the British 
and turned over to General Alvarez, head of the 
army of Honduras. After a court-martial, he was 
sentenced and shot on September 12, i860. 

Early in the eighties Zelaya appeared. After an 
education abroad he returned to his native land 
and speedily was obliged to leave it to save his 
neck, thanks to unbridled criticisms of the admin- 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 165 

istration. Thereupon he went to Guatemala, 
where he received military and political education 
at the hands of Barrios, its able dictator. Next he 
helped depose a Sal vadorian president. In 1893, 
he was chosen to head a faction in a revolution 
in his homeland, and after defeating Joaquin 
Zavala, the President, he had himself appointed 
President, as a reward of virtue. 

I have referred to Zelaya as the ''unspeakable. " 
He is also called the "Lion of Central America." 
After all, everything in life depends on the point 
of view, and what one calls Zelaya depends simply 
on which side of the fence one happens to be. 
Those whom he had rewarded in one way or 
another, used the latter title ; others preferred the 
former. 

Zelaya had a sense of humour, says Palmer, and 
enjoyed the farces of his reelection. In Guatemala 
to-day Cabrera is ''chosen" by the people every 
four years in a similar way, but the humorous 
side of the proceedings does n't seem to appeal to 
the grim little man whom his loving people have 
narrowly missed killing on at least three occasions. 

The Nicaraguan "president" grew fat on mono- 
polies, most profitable of which was that on liquor, 



i66 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

with tobacco and oil close seconds. Concessions 
of every conceivable and inconceivable kind were 
developed and sold with an amazing commercial 
ingenuity. In fact, everything possible was wrung 
dry, including national morality. It is said to 
have been one of Zelaya's boasts that he was the 
father of forty -five children, while according to his 
own figures over half of the population was of 
illegitimate birth. 

Finally, after a period of administrative de- 
bauchery, in December of 1909, Zelaya turned the 
threadbare reins of government over to Madris, 
who in turn was ousted in September of 19 10, 
being succeeded by Estrada, who was superseded 
by Diaz in May, 191 1. 

When we were in Corinto, Nicaragua was recu- 
perating from its last disturbance and preparing 
for the next, which burst into being a few months 
later, in the summer of 1912. 

We failed to take the trip to Managua, the 
scheduled steamer sailing date giving too little 
leeway, and instead perspired in Corinto, languidly 
enjoying the limited but unique society, watch- 
ing volcanic Momotombo smoke heavenward, and 
bargaining with the one bumboat woman, a privi- 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 167 

leged character who is said to have plied her trade 
there for twenty years. If that is true, she is by 
all odds the most stable institution in the country. 

I doubt if any one on board fretted at the 
Christmas time delay at Corinto more than did 
Captain K., notwithstanding the fact that a dozen 
years of Central American experience should have 
made him immune. Every one on the Pacific 
Mail — and there are some able young officers as 
well as some irascible boors as barnacled and ante- 
diluvian as the ships themselves — seems to wish 
he were somewhere else. That ''somewhere" al- 
most invariably is the "China run." Every one 
wants to be transferred, and each officer secretly 
cherishes the hope that soon he will find himself 
on the magnificent trans- Pacific liners instead of 
grinding out the tropical schedule with its host of 
difficulties and delays. 

A chief engineer has special troubles. Coal at 
the southern ports is vastly expensive. 

"If I get to Frisco with more than three days' 
coal supply, there 's all kinds of trouble, " said 
one of them, "and if we go short and have to put 
in to San Diego, there 's a worse row and I have 
to write a report telling just how it happened." 



i68 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

There were three young American ladies on 
board, each with a Httle baby. All three were 
going ''home " to Honduras, getting off at Amapala, 
whence they went by mule-back a hundred miles or 
so into the mountains to the great Rosario mines 
operated by an American syndicate at San Jacinto. 
Their husbands were employed there, and were 
waiting, through the Christmas time, at Amapala, 
while the Acapulco dawdled at Corinto. Only 
one of the fathers had seen his child, for the other 
two women had left the uncivilised bush of the 
Honduran mining camp for their homes in New 
England to give birth to their babies. So natur- 
ally there was a wonderful amount of impatience 
on the Acapulco. 

And what a time when we finally reached Ama- 
pala on the 28th ! The three husbands were there 
— had been there for ten days, with their pack 
outfit and a veritable caravan of animals and 
natives. Before the anchor was down their 
latinch was beside the ship, and up the gangway 
they tumbled, big bronzed fellows, in clothing 
originally white but now reminiscent of the long 
trail, their legs in puttees and their faces shaded 
by pith helmets. 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 169 

And what happened first, even before the 
expected kiss? Well, it was feminine, truly 
enough. One girl — with a babe who had never 
seen its father, whom she herself had not seen 
for eight months — burst out crying, half hyster- 
ically, more than half angrily. Why? Because 
her hubby had ventured to grow a mustache since 
she left him and had never written about it! 

We had dared the mothers to mix the babies — 
exchange them — just to have the fun of seeing the 
wrong father enthuse over the right baby, or 
however you choose to put it. But they lost their 
courage at the last moment, and, as the mate 
expressed it, "called it a misdeal and shuffled all 
over again." 

However, the men contributed a unique wager to 
add to the festivity of the occasion. They made 
a bet; a sort of pool on their respective baby's 
disposition. Each father put up five dollars, and 
the fifteen was to go to the mother of the haby that 
cried last! 

''Talk about a sporting proposition! That 's 
a world beater — and no chance to stack the cards, " 
was the enthusiastic comment of a Yankee engineer 
who was bound north with a Panamanian bride 



170 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

and the remnants of intermittent fever clinging to 
him. 

Before the launch was out of sight a frenzied 
baby yowl told us that at least one entry was out 
of the nmning, but it was not until two months 
later that a belated letter from the mines disclosed 
the identity of the winner. 

It was a little story in itself, that meeting in 
the hot harbour of Amapala. Four days of riding 
lay before them, and it was all riding, for the trail 
permitted the passage of nothing with wheels. 
Every foot of the way the babies would be carried 
in their go-carts, swung on a pole between two 
mozos, the indefatigable barefoot men to whom 
leagues of flinty roads mean nothing. It was 
funny to picture those natty little carts swinging 
along the dusty trails in the Honduran moun- 
tains. The stopping places would be unmention- 
able. As for food, they carried that, and would 
do their own cooking. At the end of the ride lay 
the big camp, with a couple of thousand native 
labourers, a score of white men, and five white 
women. Mail came in once in two weeks, and 
then it was months old. 

So there was real pathos in bidding good-bye to 



NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS 171 

these women who were going into the bush for a 
couple of years of social desolation. Their hus- 
bands are of the real pioneer-hero type of to-day, 
and they themselves — well, no Molly Stark was 
more heroic than are such as they! 




CHAPTER IX 
Enter Salvador 

HE first we saw of Acajutla, chief 
seaport of Salvador, was the Hght- 
house that stands on the end of a 
jutting point. That Hghthouse, by 
the way, is unique, for according to the mate, it 
is the only one along the entire Central American 
coast that is regularly lit. However, the compen- 
sating feature, from the standpoint of inefficiency, 
is that the beacon is so well surrounded by thick 
trees as to be invisible from certain quarters. 

It was three in the afternoon when we anchored 
perhaps a mile from the surf line, for here, as at 
most of the other * sports" there is no harbour at 
all, but simply an open roadstead. It was three, 
I have said. A train was supposed to go to Son- 
sonate at five. The captain and purser swore by 
all they held holy that we could catch that train 
and that we must go ashore in the first lighter. 

This we firmly refused to do, an English traveller 

172 



ENTER SALVADOR 173 

tourist and a German commercial traveller joining 
in our protest. The little German, I remember, 
was specially vociferous in his objection. Later 
it developed why — he had once been obliged to 
spend a night at Acajutla, and had no intention 
of repeating the experience. 

So we stuck, despite the sour face of the purser. 
It was never easy to understand why they should 
have made such a fuss; even as it was, each one of 
us was obliged to pay for our extra night's lodging, 
and handsomely. 

Acajutla is extremely businesslike. There is 
little to the port but the iron wharf, a railroad 
station, a couple of office buildings, a hotel, and 
an indefinite crescent of beach, with a clutter of 
native huts behind it. But everything is im- 
pressively active and almost systematised. The 
answer is found in the fact that an English 
corporation owns and manages the railroad. 

Sonsonate is an hour's run from Acajutla, over 
the flat coastal plain. There we found Seiior 
Lindo, who entertained us pleasantly during the 
two hours the train lingered, and then sent us on 
to San Salvador equipped with some welcomed 
introductions. 



174 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



Senor Lindo was responsible for our coming to 
San Salvador. We had met him and his frail, 
attractive wife on the steamer en route from New 
York to Colon, and his enthusiasm for his native 
land had filled us with the conviction that a Central 
American tour that did not include Salvador 
would be like visiting Paris and omitting the 
Louvre. 

Once I entertained the notion that "boosters" — 
the real triple-expansion, self-starting kind — were 
a genus homo restricted in their haunts to that 
part of the United States that has the good fortune 
of lying west of the Rocky Mountains. And if 
any one had told me that a Central American 
could be a dyed-in-the-wool booster it would have 
seemed absurd. 

Now I know better. Seiior Lindo is the reason 
for my conversion; at least he is the most pro- 
nounced reason. The Pacific Coast has no mono- 
poly of local patriotism, unless the ''Coast" be 
extended all the way to Panama, which it rightfully 
should. 

Seiior Lindo has two obsessions. One is his 
enthusiasm for his countr}^ and the other is his 
bitter dislike for the Pacific Mail. Curiously 



ENTER SALVADOR 175 

enough, both of these states of mind are almost 
national in Salvador, while the latter is quite 
chronic all up and down the coast, which is not 
unnatural when it is remembered that the Pacific 
Mail offers practically the beginning and the end 
of transportation possibiHties. 

The ride up from the coast to San Salvador does 
not compare at all in beauty with that from Pun- 
tarenas to San Jose. The country is dry and hot, 
and hilly enough to shut out broad vistas, yet 
so tame as to lack all real picturesqueness. There 
is little or no timber and a very thick population. 
A moderate prosperity seems quite general. 

Upon emerging from the dusty railroad carriage 
your name is taken by a uniformed gentleman at 
the San Salvador station, and that apparently 
marks the beginning and the end of any govern- 
mental surveillance so far as travellers are con- 
cerned. There were comfortable large carriages 
for the drive to the Nuevo Mondo Hotel — the 
"New World "hotel — the town's one real hostelry. 
The streets of San Salvador are paved roughly 
with cobbles, and are more clean than dirty. 
For the most part, the houses are low, and the store 
buildings of one story, usually with the character- 



176 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

istic south-country 'dobe or plastered walls. The 
street cars are one of the city's real features. They 
are of the two-mule-power variety, tiny affairs in 
themselves but operating on very broad gauge 
tracts. The mules are driven at breakneck speed, 
all other traffic vacating the road when the drivers 
came whooping along, yelling at their animals and 
brandishing cruel looking whips, which fortimately 
seem more for effect than actual use. 

The proprietor of the Nuevo Mondo speaks 
English excellently; his name is Sefior Alexander 
Forth. In appearance he resembles a German, in 
manners a Spanish grandee, and in business 
acumen a Rockefeller. Our room was a big affair 
facing the street, one story beneath, with two 
melodramatic balconies fit for any Romeo, a ceil- 
ing full fifteen feet high, and two beds with iron 
frames and some stray inhabitants unworthy of 
mention in a sober chronicle. 

We paid six dollars silver a day, each, or about 
$2.50 gold, which was extremely high for Central 
America; but the proprietor naively explained 
that as it was getting to be the height of the 
travelling season and all his rooms would be full 
anyway, there was no reason why he shoiild 



ENTER SALVADOR 177 

make any inducements to keep tourists with 
him. 

"There is no other hotel where you can go," 
was the finale of his little discourse, delivered 
with a telling shrug of his fat shoulders. 

Dining the six-hour train ride such a vast 
amount of Salvadorian terra firma had accumu- 
lated about my person that as soon as we were 
installed at the Nuevo Mondo I made overtures 
for a bath. So dirty was I that even my lack of 
Spanish did not prevent the mozo from compre- 
hending what I needed. 

Equipped with a bath towel that had been dug 
up somewhere I was led down-stairs and into an 
alcove off the little central cotirtyard — a patio 
shaded picturesquely by a tangled mass of foHage 
and vines suspended from orange, banana, alliga- 
tor pear, and bamboo trees. It appeared that the 
gentlemen's shower was in use; would I object to 
cleansing myself in the bathing place reserved for 
the senoras? Assuredly I wotdd not, I assented, 
provided none of the fair sex interfered. 

So I was ushered into a dark and cavernous 
hole and left to my own devices, the mozo politely 
insinuating that from this point on my ablutions 



178 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

must be personally conducted, so to speak. The 
sound of gently falling water came from the distant 
comer of the sombre apartment; over an eight- 
foot partition there filtered just enough light to 
deceive one into thinking that it was possible to 
see your hand before your face, which it was n't. 
I have read in the best detective stories that the 
right thing to do tmder such circumstances is to 
stand perfectly still until your eyes become accus- 
tomed to the dimness. Of course then, in the 
stories, the malicious machinations of the villain 
become visible and the final clue necessary to free 
the fair damsel or win the treasure is apparent. 
So I stood still, tenderly clasping the bath towel, 
praying that no sefioras would seek to investigate 
what interloper was intruding upon their reser- 
vations, and awaiting the revelation, as stoically, 
I venture to believe, as William Gillette playing 
Sherlock Holmes ever could have contrived under 
equally trying circumstances. 

After a time, when it was possible to distinguish 
objects somewhat, I ventured to explore. Gingerly 
and little by little I established the topography 
of the bath-room. A huge tub, probably about 
four by nine feet, and three feet high, was built 



ENTER SALVADOR 179 



up from the concrete floor. A tiny tap at the 
darkest end gave forth a proportionately tiny jet 
of water. In the midst of the gloom there was a 
lone chair. At the side of the tub there was a 
tin pan; I divined that this was the "shower" 
feature of the bath, gravity and the pan doing the 
work. Then, disrobing, I prepared to bathe. 

But there was no soap. I needed soap, and 
needed it badly. First I made a careful investiga- 
tion, crawling on m_y hands and knees throughout 
the gloom and feeling in every possible and impos- 
sible place where an article like a piece of soap 
might have located itself. Discouragement alone 
rewarded me. 

Shielding myself with the bath towel as thor- 
oughly as its meagre proportions permitted, I 
sallied forth, with fear and trepidation. Mind 
you, I was in the senoras' quarters, and it required 
courage to face the bright outer light clad in only 
a towel. 

''Mozo,'' I called softly. '' Mozo, bring hither 
some soap." 

Echo answered echo. But I did n't want 
echoes. I wanted soap. 

I tried whistling. Apparently there was not 



i8o SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

a mozo within earshot. Casting discretion to the 
winds (but retaining the bath towel!) I salHed 
forth still farther, out into the very passageway 
beside the patio. No sooner had I reached it than 
a gentle swish of skirts sounded in my terror- 
stricken ears. With a fearful slide, I regained the 
safe recesses of the tub room, and there waited, lis- 
tening, until the feminine sounds had disappeared, 
thanking my stars that the particular lady in 
question had not desired a bath. For to have had 
a Spanish-speaking dame thrust in upon me would 
have complicated the already too-complicated af- 
fair beyond the powers of endurance. 

Finally, after another campaign of calling, a 
boy appeared. 

''Soap," said I, in what I hoped would be both 
a lucid and winning manner. 

He regarded me blankly, and then launched into 
a torrent of words with his conversational clutch 
thrown wide open. It was a dead lock. At last, 
after I had resorted to a sign-language picture of 
the application of the desired article, the truth 
dawned upon him and he departed to return anon 
with the long-sought soap, after which all was 
happy. 



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ENTER SALVADOR i8i 

Salvador is supremely proud of two things. The 
first is its prosper it}^ The second is that Johnny 
Moissant, the aviator who was killed at New Or- 
leans a couple of years ago, once lived in Salvador. 
The reflected fame of the Moissant residence will 
never be cast off the little country's shoulders. 
A matter in connection with the famous man's 
residence in the little republic which seems to have 
been forgotten and forgiven, is that he once led 
a rather promising revolution. The story says 
that his forces captured the Pacific coast sections, 
including the town of Sonsonate, where a ''loan" 
was negotiated from a bank, a due bill for $200,000 
being given the institution, with the honour and 
respect for business detail characteristic of such 
affairs. When the rebels finally were routed just 
what became of that due bill is not recorded. 

We were sitting in the Cathedral plaza when 
the gentleman who had transported our trunk from 
the depot appeared. He was immaculately attired 
and politeness itself. He delivered a flowery 
Castilian speech; its import evidently was that 
when we had the misfortune to leave the hospitable 
city we were urged again to entrust the transporta- 
tion of our goods to his able hands. 



1 82 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

"Trusting that you will always remain the 
same, adios, my very dear friend, " was the unique 
rhetorical jewel with which he closed his discourse. 
Whereat he tipped his hat, shook hands all round, 
and retired in the most gallant fashion. All of 
which illustrates the fact that a drayman is a 
polished gentleman in Spanish land — which he is 
not apt to be in Old New York. 

Later, we had another funny experience in the 
same park, a trifle more embarrassing. While I 
was taking photographs of the really excellent 
statuary, we chanced to smile upon a couple of 
ragamuffin youngsters who were watching oper- 
ations and invited them to get into the picture. 
They needed no urging. In fact, seeing what was 
going on, every small boy and girl in range came 
running up, until at least fifty had gathered. All 
well and good for that particular picture, but when 
we started to walk away in search of other views, 
the whole army followed at our heels, yelling like 
little fiends. 

We tried to shake them in as dignified a manner 
as the situation permitted, but with little success, 
and finally were forced into ignominious retreat 
from the park, walking down endless streets, ap- 




Outside the Mercado, San Salvador 




In Duenas Plaza, San Salvador — statuary, the ever-present band-stand, 
and the ragamuffins who later became a pest 



ENTER SALVADOR 183 



parently on our way somewhere or other. At 
length the mob wearied of the pursuit of the tall 
Gringos, and we were left to our own devices. 
Later I crept back to that park as if I were a 
criminal eluding spies, and got the desired photo- 
graphs, unseen by the human pests. 

It was in Duenas Plaza, where our difficulty 
with San Salvador's youth occurred, that there is 
a really imposing bit of statuary, a bronze and 
marble monument some fifty feet high, with a 
winged Glory on top and at the base Liberty, with 
the busts of Delgado, Arce, and Rodriguez, and 
the national coat of arms. It commemorates Sal- 
vador's declaration of independence from the Mex- 
ican dominion, and was dedicated on November 5, 
191 1, one hundred years after the inauguration of 
the struggle that resulted in the independence of 
Salvador, under the leadership of the three patriots 
above named. 

In parks San Salvador is delightfully equipped. 
There seem to be a dozen of them worthy of the 
name, and six chief ones, all well kept and beauti- 
ful. Of course, in each one there is a band-stand, 
for the band concerts are the beginning and end 
of public amusement in the Spanish-American 



184 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

countries, and the band-stand is the local repro- 
duction of our own Coney Islands, Central Parks, 
and Metropolitan Opera Houses rolled into one 
inclusive and satisfying whole. The bands are 
remarkably good and their music excellent; no 
American park audience would have the good taste 
to appreciate the high class selections played 
here, when even the barefoot listener is an inborn 
musical critic, and an appreciative one at that. 

We were in San Salvador on New Year's day, 
but apparently little was made of this holiday 
except in the way of some private entertainments, 
at least one large dance being given. However, 
the Nuevo Mondo was treated to its share of 
New Year's hilarity by a group of Germans who 
tortured the piano and every one within earshot 
until daylight drove them to bed. German na- 
tional songs, hymns, and collegiate melodies are 
good to listen to at times, but hard on the audience 
when the volunteers are considerably more than 
half seas under, and the time of rendering is from 
midnight to dawn. 

The market is by far the most interesting 
and picturesque feature of Salvador's capital, 
and, like the circus of our short-trousers days, 




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ENTER SALVADOR 185 

it is the ''biggest and the best" to be found in 
Central America, we were told. According to 
the Britisher just up from South America, it is 
better than anything he encountered in a year's 
travel in that land. 

Looking down from our balcony at the Hotel 
Nuevo Mondo early Sunday morning, one sees an 
endless procession of women, with baskets on their 
heads, streaming past and turning up from the 
Cathedral plaza in front of the Palacio Nacional. 
Across the plaza, emerging from the converging 
streets, there are similar streams of women, all 
with baskets, empty or full, dependent upon 
whether they are merchants or prospective pur- 
chasers, and all clad in shawls of vivid hue, most 
of them barefooted and all bareheaded. Such 
a sight is not restricted to Sunday. Only Sundays 
and holidays happen to bring out the biggest 
crowds, and then the introduction to the quaint 
Mercado is the best. 

Watch these women for a few minutes. The 
rainbow colouring of their shawls and dresses is 
enough reward, as they file along between the low, 
tinted walls of the houses, almost invariably 
choosing the rough cobbles of the middle of the 



186 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

street in preference to the smooth sidewalks, 
where they and their broad burdens may be inter- 
fered with by other passers-by. Their baskets are 
broad and flat and woven of coarse native grass or 
wicker, measuring from twenty to thirty -six inches 
in diameter. The women do all the work, one very 
rarely seeing a man carrying a burden, the extent 
of masculine labour apparently being the prodding 
of the oxen who loaf along with the little two- 
wheel carts. Here, by the way, the wheels mostly 
have spokes and are not made solidly, as in Costa 
Rica. 

Some of the burdens the women carry are tre- 
mendous. In weight they often reach one hundred 
pounds, and this, spread out on a flat basket, bal- 
anced to a hair breadth while the bearer walks in 
bare feet over rough cobbles. No wonder that 
all the women have backs as straight as ramrods ! 

The conglomeration of burdens is as interesting 
as their size. For example, we saw one hag trudg- 
ing along with a veritable variety store stock on 
her head; in her big flat basket were a dozen 
large bunches of watercress, eight eggs on a plate, 
a good-sized jug of milk, two tamales, two or three 
zapotes, a massive chunk of meat, and a collection 



ENTER SALVADOR 187 

of unknown vegetables. At her breast was a 
nursing baby, and behind her straggled another 
infant tagging at her scanty skirt. Doubtless 
paterfamilias was at home, enjoying his Sabbath 
smoke. 

That was no very uncommon sight. We simply 
had opportunity to tabulate her cargo as the lady 
passed beneath our balcony. Eggs are carried 
with nonchalance, big platters and urns of milk 
and other strange-looking liquids are borne aloft 
with easy grace, doves sit on top of the piled up 
baskets as their mistresses walk along, and are 
too common sights to provoke comment. And 
nothing ever falls ; even in the markets themselves, 
where the narrow passages are crowded with basket 
bearers, there appear to be no collisions and no 
accidents. 

The markets are behind the palace. There are 
several of them, all roofed and walled in, with 
hundreds of booths separated by narrow aisles, 
up and down which surges a mass of womenfolk, 
either poor people buying for themselves, or the 
servants of the rich making purchases for their 
mistresses. 

Two buildings are devoted to cooked stuffs. 



1 88 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Better, they are used for cooking. Huge places 
they are, measuring probably 75 by 200 feet. The 
air is full of charcoal and wood smoke from the 
scores of little fires beneath the earthenware pots 
and pans, which are set upon stones or scraps of 
corrugated iron. Apparently everything imagin- 
able is cooking. Meat, of course, for they are 
tremendous meat eaters, all these people, from the 
elite at the Hotel Nuevo Mondo, to the poorest 
of the poor heating up their scraps at the curb. 
Coffee, too, there is in plenty. Doubtless it is as 
cheap as water. Some chefs are making tortillas , 
and others are presiding over countless pots of 
frijoles, for beans are the backbone of the native 
diet. Here and there a platter full of plantains 
sizzles in grease, until they turn to a delicious 
brown and are fished out by hardened and dirty 
fingers and skilfully placed in corn husks or 
upon green leaves. They are as good as they look 
and smell (and their odour is ambrosial) , are these 
fried bananas, if one has the courage to disregard 
their environment. Also, there are tamales of 
several kinds and appearances and indigestibility. 
Here, as elsewhere in the markets, is a revel of 
colour, a seemingly continual good humour, and 




A " delivery waggon," Central America 



ENTER SALVADOR 



an all-pervading odour that is indescribable — call 
it an olfactory epic and be satisfied. 

In the other buildings there must be nearly 500 
saleswomen, and all busy. Apparently all of 
San Salvador does all of its food purchasing in the 
market every day. There are no "departments," 
no "floor walkers," no cash registers, and no 
system. Every miniature merchant is for herself, 
and the devil take the hindmost — a state of affairs 
which gives the purchasing public the advantages 
of a spirited competition. 

The vendors of earthenware are perhaps as 
picturesque as any, as they sit on the floor in the 
midst of their brown jugs and plates and platters, 
bargaining vociferously over a two-cent purchase. 
The native Indian work in this line is excellent, 
and the price of really attractive things is infini- 
tesimal. Of course, it is all hand work, and as the 
labourers get about twelve cents a day plus their 
frijoles, the price of their products is upon a corre- 
sponding scale. 

In one corner grimy hags sell charcoal, which 
comes to market upon the backs of mules or drawn 
in the lumbering ox-carts. Sugar is vended from 
big gourds; the purchaser scrapes off a handful. 



I90 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

some of which she tastes and the rest throws back. 
It is scarcely hygienic, but it is a mighty satisfac- 
tory^ wa}^ of ascertaining the quahty of what one 
buys. Then, if a price mutually agreeable has 
been arrived at, the saleslady holds up her scales 
and does the weighing. This consists in placing 
a metal or stone weight in one hollowed gourd 
which is hung from a stick balanced on the sales- 
woman's finger; at the opposite end of the stick 
is another gourd receptacle, in which is placed the 
sugar until a balance is effected, and the stick is 
horizontal. Then the bu^^er takes her purchase. 
She either wraps it in a banana leaf or simply 
dumps it in her basket, along with the half dozen 
other articles alread}^ there. The seller never 
wraps up her goods when sold, for that is the affair 
of the purchaser. 

The meats make the least agreeable display. 
They are apt to be shredded, and one suspects 
that they are still warm. Every morning between 
six and seven the big hearse-like ox-carts bring 
the meat to the markets. The carts are metal- 
lined, tightly covered and divided into compart- 
ments, and are painted a vivid indigo blue. In 
them the meat, brought directly from the govern- 



ENTER SALVADOR 191 

mentally-inspected slaughter-houses, is packed 
promiscuously, layer after layer. Before the sun 
is more than up, the blue carts are at the market 
door, ready for the women, as usual, to do the 
lifting and carrying. They stand at the side of 
the carts and have their baskets loaded until it is 
just possible to stagger under the weight ; literally, 
every pound of the heavy, bloody meat that can be 
crowded upon their wide baskets is piled up, mak- 
ing immense burdens, borne in some incompre- 
hensible way by the sinewy little women. 

There is a ''curb market" also, not as extensive 
as the interior ones, but at least with the advantage 
of better ventilation, a matter of some moment. 
Cold, cool, and hot drinks are for sale by most 
of the curb merchants, usually displayed in big 
gourds. Also, there are cigars and cigarettes of 
every description and blackness and price. Judg- 
ing from the appearance of the barefoot customers, 
I should say that there are more *'ten-for's" than 
^'two-for's." 

The scavengers are the buzzards, ably aided by 
an ever-roaming canine army, for there seem to be 
more dogs than beggars in San Salvador, the latter 
being agreeably noticeable because of their absence. 



192 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

The street- cleaning department, although ar- 
chaic, is certainly picturesque. A couple of men 
turn on hydrants along the curb, which drain into 
sluice-boxes, and from these they throw the water 
out over the streets with pails. This lays the dust 
somewhat and the sweepers then get in their good 
work, armed with huge witches' brooms, made of 
twigs, with which they perform upon the cobbles 
in a manner that would do credit to a Dutch 
housewife. 

The national palace is the show building of the 
city, occupying an entire block, facing the Cathe- 
dral plaza. Externally, it is built in excellent 
taste, a replica, I understand, of some classic 
palace in Spain. A colonnade of well proportioned 
columns forms the main entrance from the park. 

Within, the palace, which is really nothing more 
than the office building of the government, is 
built about a large open court. The building is 
not yet completed. Some will tell you that the 
entire affair cost six million dollars, silver; others, 
equally positive, state that the outlay was four 
millions. The truth of the matter seems to be 
that no one knows exactly what it did cost. Also, 
many who have watched its erection say very 




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ENTER SALVADOR 193 

openly that the contractors made a fabulous profit. 
That seems to be the order of the day — foreign 
contractors milking local treasuries, with generous 
rake-offs for the officialdom at the helm. In nearly 
every room was a picture of the President, Dr. 
Manuel Enrique Araujo, a gentleman, by the way, 
apparently uniquely noted for his integrity and 
public spirit. 

One afternoon we took a two-mule-power car 
and went out to the Finca Modela, a pretty little 
park some twenty minutes' ride from the centre 
of the city, where there is an artificial lake, pleas- 
ant gardens, a tiny museum, and a place, where it 
is possible (though far from advisable) to get 
abominable soft drinks. The feature of the trip 
is the hair-raising manner in which the little street 
cars go around right-angled comers, the mules at 
full gallop. Why the cars never leave the track 
is one of the imsolved Salvadorian mysteries. 

No, that is n't really the feature, either. In 
reminiscing upon things Central American, one is 
too apt to overdraw the minor matters that at the 
time seemed amusing or ludicrous, perhaps only 
because one judged them — quite imfairly — by the 
entirely different standards of the northland. It 



194 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

is an unfortunate habit. Frankly, we are unfair. 
The feature of San Salvador, then, was not its 
diminutive street cars, its barefoot women, and its 
funny little ways. The feature of San Salvador, 
and of all of El Salvador, and the surprise of it, 
is its positive delight as a place to visit. 

El Salvador's interests are not commanding, it 
is true; as an American resident expressed it, it 
is a "soft pedal country. " But its native popula- 
tion is unique and picturesque, its scenery is 
attractive, and its winter climate perfection. 
Above all, the uninitiated should realise that it is 
an easy land in which to travel. Lack of Spanish 
is no serious drawback; the hotels are passable, 
and most of them even good; the rates are infini- 
tesimal; the food excellent; there is no disorder 
or difficulty. Salvador we foimd a happy little 
land, well worth visiting; Costa Rica was the same; 
Guatemala proved a veritable treasure trove of 
interest, politically and economically an abomina- 
tion, but by all odds the most fascinating area for 
healthy-minded and healthy-bodied sight-seekers 
that one can encounter on this western continent. 




CHAPTER X 

San Salvador 

AN SALVADOR'S business activity 
seems to be chiefly in the hands 
of the Germans and Hebrews, most 
of the latter hailing from the United 
States. The capital city is the centre of trade for 
the entire country, and from it is conducted a 
very considerable wholesale and distributing busi- 
ness, which, judging from a casual observation, 
appears to be eminently profitable for those who 
have gained a foothold. 

The little capital city has a pleasant ''foreign 
colony," although the title is not entirely fitting, 
as most of those whom it would include are entirely 
absorbed in things Salvadorian, are old residents, 
and are as integral parts of the republic in every 
way, except perhaps politically, as it is possible 
to be. Some of these — and especially the Amer- 
icans — have the advantage of perspective, with 

which goes the ability to comment interestingly 

195 



196 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

upon the conditions surrounding them. That 
much of the comment is sincere offsets the dis- 
advantage that some of it is satire. 

In the course of our stay we had many occasions 
to visit the Foreig : Club, thanks to the hospitaHty 
of chance friends. The club itself, which stands 
opposite the Cathedral, is a magnificent place, 
quite outshining the Strangers' and University 
Clubs at Colon and Panama. From the street you 
pass through a grilled door into the one large room. 
The floor is tiled, the walls are coolly bare, and the 
finishings simple in design and colour. In the cen- 
tre is a small garden, circular and perhaps twenty 
feet in diameter, down into which one steps from 
the room; above the garden there is no roof, so 
that the moon and stars look into the very heart 
of the building. Of course there is a bar, and 
billiard and card tables, not to mention a very 
well-equipped reading-room with a multitude of 
magazines of many countries. Altogether, it is 
a picture of luxury and tropical comfort. 

There are some funny things about that club. 
For instance, it takes twelve blackballs to keep 
an applicant from membership, and there are only 
twenty- two voting members! Few, if any, of 




Cathedral at San Salvador 



SAN SALVADOR 197 

the clubs of the world require more than three or 
four blackballs to prevent membership, a fact 
which I ventured to mention. 

"Ah, but Salvador is different,'* explained Mine 
Host, a transplanted Yankee with a well-developed 
sense of humour. ''You see, we all know each 
other here and — oh well, there is so little to do 
except stir up trouble! We started in with three 
blackballs. It was impossible to get new mem- 
bers; no one could get in, because at least three of 
the charter members hated every man suggested. 
We raised the limit to six, and still the club would 
not grow. Finally, it was made twelve, and we Ve 
increased our membership to one hundred and 
fifty." 

My informant, who was a charter member, 
solemnly declared that he never could have got 
into the club in any other way than by being one 
of its foimders. 

At all events, the Foreign Club is a delightful 
place to sit of a starlit night, and drink pale green 
creme de menthe under the twinkling tropical 
sky in the tiny Italian garden, placed like a cool 
dark gem in the surrounding setting of gaily 
lighted room, where white-clad men loaf or play 



198 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

or drink. (That last is poorly worded, for they 
drank no matter what else they did.) 

One big whiskered man sat alone, a bit morosely. 
He, it seems, had made a contract with the govern- 
ment to deliver $400,000 worth of cannon. The 
contract was closed ; every one who had to be paid 
had been paid and the guns were on their way from 
Europe. Then suddenly the "powers that be" 
decided they would rather devote $400,000 to other 
purposes than ordnance, and the whiskered gentle- 
man was told that while it regretted the necessity 
the government did not see its way clear to take 
those cannon just at that time. Since then that 
gentleman with the $400,000 cannon, the whiskers 
and an injured sense of justice has been alternately 
trying to make El Salvador take the ordnance, 
and suing it for damages. That he will succeed 
in gaining either end seems problematical. What 
hurt him most, our friend explained, was the recol- 
lection of the generous "greasing" he had admin- 
istered to the hands of the very officialdom which 
later turned and blandly told him and his precious 
cannon to go to blazes, if the gossip of the hour 
was credible. 

In the course of Foreign Club conversation, the 



SAN SALVADOR 199 

discussion meandered around to insects. Now 
perhaps bugs is not a refined topic, but at least 
in the southland it has the advantage of a diversi- 
fied field from which to draw. Also, it may be 
amusing. 

We had told of the multitudes of ants en- 
countered at various times in our rooms, and of 
our Machiavellian schemes for their destruction. 
One, which was practised with great success, was 
to place a little sugar on the washstand, and when 
several regiments of ants and their nearest rela- 
tives had gathered for the feast, to sweep the en- 
tire community into a bucket of water. The only 
discouraging feature of the wholesale massacre 
was that it apparently made no impression upon 
the insect population. 

"That 's nothing," said O., when we remarked 
that at Puntarenas it was necessary to keep the 
sugar bowl afloat. "Every night I go to bed at 
sea, so to speak, with the feet of the bed in jars 
of water. Before I caught on to the scheme it 
always made me feel as if I was intruding when I 
got under the sheets — there were so many there 
before me! And take this warning: Never hang 
up a suit of clothes if there is a spot of grease or 



200 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

something edible on it; if you do the ants will 
eat the spot right out of the cloth. It 's cleanly 
enough, but extravagant! But, really, those ants 
are a blessing, for they do more to keep things 
clean than anything else." Which reminded me 
of the spiders at San Jose, which no one killed 
because they exterminated other insects. 

It appeared that the author of a certain book on 
Central America spent one night ashore at Sal- 
vador, making a flying trip to the capital and then 
returning to his steamer at Acajutla. Our friend, 
O., happened to meet him on the train. 

^*I made him red hot," said O., telling of the 
incident, which seemed to tickle him. He was 
curiously resentful of a man who would try to 
write authoritatively of a country after spending 
only one night in it. "You see, he started in to 
talk about the benefits of American industry and 
example down here; how a few Americans could 
increase the efficiency of the country a couple of 
thousand per cent. , and all the rest of it. Then he 
asked me why Americans were not running the 
railroad ; why they had native instead of American 
conductors. 

"Now," continued O., "that made me a bit sore. 



SAN SALVADOR 201 

because I Ve heard that Yankee notion so many 
times, and I know just how it does n't work. 
Also, I happened to know a whole lot about the 
railroad. So I told him why conductors were n't 
Americans — because the company had 'fired' 
'em, after they had conscientiously 'knocked 
down ' an average of $800 a month in fares. That 
made him mad. He said I was n't patriotic. But 
I could n't afford to be — I owned stock in the 
railroad, you see!" 

That bustling little railroad is the raison d'etre 
of most of Salvador's prosperity. It has one 
hundred miles of track, and also an annual subsidy 
of about $9600 from the government. Besides 
the track and the subsidy, there are twelve loco- 
motives, twenty-seven passenger coaches, and one 
hundred and sixty-eight freight cars, all, like the 
right of way, in good condition. In 1910, 264,000 
passengers were carried and 70,000 tons of freight, 
of which 16,000 tons were coffee. When we were 
there, in 191 1, the price of coffee was $37, silver, 
and the planters were rejoicing; the previous 
year's figures had been $32. 

In 1899, the income of the railroad was $3465; 
in 1900, $40,000; in 1904, $200,000; in 1908, $500- 



202 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ooo, and in 191 o, $675,000. But its most interest- 
ing expansion is not on land, but at sea, for the 
company has three trim Httle ships of 1200 tons 
each, which fly the British flag and are designed 
for the trade of the small Central American ports, 
and for nothing else. They have special arrange- 
ments of hatches, and are light draught, so that 
they can come close to the wharves, and are quick 
to handle, being able to pinch out of tight places 
should occasion arise. 

A quiet and interesting Englishman, of small 
stature and persistent temperament, is manager 
of the railroad company. His name is Spencer, 
and he has some decided notions regarding his 
business and its territory, which are both valuable 
and entertaining. 

Among other things, he believes that those who 
expect great development of the western Central 
American ports after the opening of the Canal 
will be disappointed, and especially as regards the 
establishment of service with large steamers. 

"Only on the Atlantic can large vessels be 
operated profitably," he told me. "It may be 
said that nothing under 5000 tons can make 
money on regular runs. Any good shipping man 



SAN SALVADOR 203 

will tell you that. On the Pacific, the reverse 
holds. Nothing over 1500 tons can operate 
profitably in a local business. At least, this applies 
to Central American ports. Take Acajutla, for 
instance, and San Jose, La Libertad, and the rest 
of them. From the end of the wharf at Acajutla 
there is nothing but Pacific Ocean to Australia. 
That means that even under the most ideal 
weather conditions there is a swell, and a swell 
means delay in lightering and more delay in load- 
ing and unloading lighters at the wharf. 

**The local business all along the coast is a story 
of delay after delay. It is impossible that it 
should be otherwise. And a big ship cannot afford 
to be held up a day or two for a hundred tons of 
freight. At Acajutla, for instance, the very best 
record we can make is 500 tons of coffee loaded in 
a day. And that is the best we shall be able to 
do for a long time, because the amount of business 
does not, and will not, justify better facilities. 
The maximum unloaded is 150 tons. One reason 
is the extreme strictness of the customs examina- 
tions. Boxes and cases are opened, chiefly in the 
hope of discovering arms and ammunition." 

Later we heard an instance of this mania for 



204 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

getting at the bottom of things on the part of 
customs officials. A small shipment of photo- 
graphic films arrived, and in the course of examin- 
ation more than half of the spools were unwound, 
to make sure that the rolls contained nothing they 
should not! Imagine the patriotic joy of that 
photographer when the exposed films were 
delivered. 

One afternoon at his office, Mr. Spencer en- 
larged upon the future of the west-coast Central 
American trade, as he foresaw it. In passing, 
it should be remarked that many steamship men, 
including officials of the Pacific Mail, heartily dis- 
agree with him. 

'*We believe that in the Central American 
Pacific trade there will be only one solution — 
switch steamers. That is, little ships to handle the 
local trade. They will take the coffee to Panama 
and Salina Cruz, where they will load with the 
imports that will be left there by the big through 
steamers that cannot afford to make the stop- 
over local trips themselves. 

"So we have built three ships and will build 
others if we find we are right. It takes them 
thirty-six hours to get to Salina Cruz. Another 



SAN SALVADOR 205 

twelve hours sees the coffee across the Tehuantepec 
railroad, and then the fast American-Hawaiian 
and other boats hurry it up to New York, or it 
goes to Hamburg. Yes, most of the coffee is going 
that way now; they simply can't handle the busi- 
ness at Panama. At least, they don't seem to care 
to try. I can't say that they deliberately hold it 
up, but it seems pretty near to that. 

" Yes, the Tehuantepec may slide pretty fast after 
there is direct handling of east and west trade via 
Panama. Don't doubt it a bit. Then we will go 
to Panama. See why I call 'em switch steamers? " 

Small vessels, small crews, and proper cargo 
arrangement to meet local conditions is the sal- 
vation of the local coasting problem, according to 
Mr. Spencer. 

The Acajutla, the newest of the little Salva- 
dorian fleet, had just been put into commission. 
She came from England under her own steam, and 
it may be remarked that a 16,000-mile sail is 
something of a feat for a 1200-ton steamer, loaded 
to the gun'els with coal. 

" I met the captain at the pier and asked him up 
to have a cocktail, " said Spencer, speaking of the 
arrival of the steamer. 



206 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

When he saw the captain, Spencer's first ques- 
tion was: "How much coal have you got?'* 
and that, with the cocktail, was the end of it. 

A Salvadorian official was present and saw the 
quiet reception. Said he: 

"You English certainly are the most extraordin- 
ary race created. To think of making no more 
fuss than that ! If it had been a ship of ours that 
had made such a wonderful trip, we would have 
welcomed it with bands and dinners. A week 
would have been devoted to celebration. And you 
offer the captain a cocktail! An unfathomable 
race, indeed!" 

Which illustrated admirably the difference 
between an Anglo-Saxon way of doing things and 
a Latin. 

Remembering the story about the author and 
the American conductors, I asked Mr. Spencer 
how he found native labour; the road has only a 
dozen English or Americans in its employ. In 
answer, he suggested that I have a look in an aver- 
age baggage car; later I did. 

In a Salvadorian baggage car you can see every- 
thing imaginable. A woman sends a basket of 
eggs to her daughter up the line. The basket is 



SAN SALVADOR 207 

open, but no eggs are ever taken. Probably she 
explains to the conductor at the start that there 
are 132 eggs in that basket. And the conductor 
knows that when they reach their destination the 
daughter will count them. Also, he is aware that 
the company holds him personally responsible 
for their safe delivery. In those cars there are 
fighting cocks, tied in haphazard fashion to the 
nearest convenient object. Dogs and mules are 
sent around nonchalantly; open baskets of fruit 
and vegetables, furniture, everything and any- 
thing; and nothing is lost or stolen, for the native 
trainmen are honest so far as theft is concerned. 
But when there were ''white men" on the work 
the company was swamped with claims, not to 
mention the fact that the conductors and agents 
pocketed all they could lay their hands on. Also, 
native labour is cheaper by several multiples than 
American. 

A feature of the Salvadorian traffic that attracts 
the attention of the stranger is the transportation 
of mules. Every train has a mule car. The cava- 
lier rides up to the station and buys tickets for 
himself and steed. Then the mule enters the 
car reserved for his kind, and the rider either 



208 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

retires to the luxuries of the first-class carriage, 
if he be affluent, or climbs up on the top of the mule 
car, where he passes the time of day with his 
brothers until his destination is reached. It is 
no small mystery how they manage to keep their 
places on the top of that car, for the little trains 
jolt along at a goodly clip around the curves and 
up and down the sudden grades. However, both 
animals and riders seem to enjoy the experience. 

I commented upon the great number of mail 
sacks that we had seen being unloaded into the 
lighters at Acajutla, , and that started the well- 
informed railroad man upon a discourse regarding 
the workings of the parcels post in Salvador. 

Two years ago the average amoimt of mail 
brought from Germany and England to Acajutla 
of each steamer was one sack; now there is a 
lighter load, chiefly of great hampers. Next to 
nothing in that lighter originated in the United 
States. 

" See here, '' said Spencer, in answer to my query. 
*' In this magazine [it was a New York publication] 
there are advertisements of five articles I want. 
One is manufactured in Boston, another in St. 
Louis, and another, you see, is a California product, 



SAN SALVADOR 209 

and still another comes from New Orleans. I 'd 
like to order all of 'em. But I won't — rather, I 
can't. Instead, I '11 get them from England and 
Germany, even though it takes longer and in the 
end I '11 not receive just what I wanted. '* 

Naturally, I asked for an explanation. 

"Why? Because England, Germany, and Sal- 
vador have parcels post," he continued. "The 
postage will be low and the inconvenience will be 
the minimum. Ordering from the States, the ex- 
press bill would be larger than that for the articles 
themselves, and heaven only knows when the 
stuff would get here, not to mention the trouble 
with the customs, for every article sent in would 
be opened at the port, and the consignee ob- 
liged to forward to the officials there the amount 
of duty. The parcels post packages are opened 
at the point of destination, and all you have to do 
is to go to the office, pay the duty, and get the 
mail. It is as easy as rolling off a log. " 

Of course, all that was a year ago. It would be 
interesting to know just what difference our adop- 
tion of parcels post has made, and whether the 
expected transfer of Salvadorian business from 

Europe to our own markets has been effected. 
14 



210 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

A curious matter regarding our international 
trade relations with Salvador came to my attention 
and one that is perhaps worth mentioning, al- 
though to follow it out at length would be folly 
in an account that makes no pretence of being 
a discussion of economic conditions. It is this. 
A very apparent discrimination exists against the 
United States as regards duties, whose inevitable 
result, it would seem, will be the practical elimina- 
tion of North American competition with Europe 
in this particular field. On general merchandise 
an average of thirty-nine per cent, more is collected 
on American products than upon French, German, 
and Belgian imports. On canned goods the differ- 
ence amounts to ten cents a kilogramme, and on 
wines and liquors about seven cents a kilo, plus an 
average analysis tax of fifteen cents a bottle. So, 
despite the comparative proximity of United States 
supply points, and freight rates which favour them 
on an average of $5.40 a ton, as compared with 
those of Europe, the great majority of Salvadorian 
money spent on imports finds its way across the 
Atlantic. 

A glimpse of Salvadorian statistics (and they are 
both copious and trustworthy as compared with 



SAN SALVADOR 211 

the feeble attempts in this direction of its neigh- 
bours) shows that in the last few years the im- 
portation of luxuries has advanced, while that of 
necessities has declined. Arguing along the line 
that the amount purchased indicates the financial 
ability of the purchaser, it would appear that the 
poor are getting poorer and the rich, richer. I 
believe the imports of all the republics would 
indicate a similar condition, were not such sta- 
tistics, for the most part, either non-existent 
or hopelessly unreliable. The foreign commerce of 
Salvador in 1910 amounted to $11,039,851, an 
increase over the previous year of $1,209,167, 
despite the fact that imports fell off nearly half 
a million dollars. During the year the trade bal- 
ance favored the little republic to the extent of 
nearly one hundred per cent. 

While in search of statistical information, I had 
the pleasure of meeting Sefior Rafael Guirola, 
Ministro de Hacienda, whose position corresponds, 
in a way, to that of our Secretary of the Interior. 
He spoke English well and possessed an excel- 
lent European education. Like all natives, he is 
exceedingly gracious and hospitable. Also, like 
most of them, — for they are all proud of their little 



212 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

country, — I had not been with him five minutes 
before he had informed me that Salvador has the 
largest population proportionate to area of any 
country in the world, excepting only Belgium. 
The little republic includes 24,126 square miles 
within her borders, and her population was esti- 
mated at 1,070,155 in 1910, although nothing 
approximating a careful census had ever been 
attempted. 

To gain an idea of the complete cultivation of 
the country it is only necessary to glance at any 
of the steep hills surrounding San Salvador and see 
the checkerboard fields that climb to their very 
tops, seemingly taking advantage of every square 
foot of tillable earth where crops will stick without 
sliding off. 

It is a remarkably productive land, too, a unique 
evidence of the general fertility being the presence 
of orchids growing on telephone wires, a sight com- 
monly encountered. However, in this respect, it 
seems fair to say that damper Costa Rica excels, 
where, it will be remembered, we saw hundreds of 
fence posts and railroad ties that had taken root. 
Salvador has a dry season, from December prac- 
tically until June, and during that period the land 



SAN SALVADOR 213 

is parched and dusty, and the flowers and grass 
wither away. 

I found this English gentleman who was man- 
aging Salvador's railroad concerned with other 
things besides tonnage, trade routes, and coffee 
shipments. Indeed, it always seems to me that a 
Britisher, if he has any originality at all, is far 
more likely to be interested in some unexpected 
subject far outside his personal business world than 
ever happens with Americans similarly situated. 
For is n't it a chronic trait of a Yankee mind to 
begin and end at the office, plus the affairs of the 
home and a serious consideration of a sort of 
self-inflicted recreation? 

Be that as it may, Spencer was primed with 
unique information. Much of it was historic, 
and concerned Central and South America, 
throughout which he had travelled exhaustively. 
I am convinced he would have enjoyed being a 
historian as much as managing a railroad, and 
would have preferred globe-trotting to either. 
One of the odd tales he brought to my attention 
concerned the origin of the phrase "El Dorado," 
and its development, through the period of Spanish 
conquest, into its meaning of to-day. So in the 



214 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

next chapter I temporarily abandon our modem 
Central American jaunt and devote a few pages 
to this quaint bit of the semi-historic, semi- 
legendary past. 

One remark Spencer made sticks in my memory. 

"A proper understanding of the historic develop- 
ment of Central America can never be gained 
by reviewing its political history. It must be a 
sociological study." 

That has never been attempted, and perhaps 
never will be. A Bancroft is needed to unravel 
the snarls of the last century and from them 
straighten out the true strong lines of develop- 
ment and real historic meaning. And a vexing 
task it will be, thanks to the endless eruptions 
which have moulded and remoulded each and 
every land. 

At all events, the meanings of the Central 
American countries lie in their peoples and not in 
their past. Study the people, and be satisfied. 
Above all — the advice is second hand, and can be 
yours for the asking of any foreign resident — 
learn to adapt yourself to their manner of life, 
and especially to its emphasis on the advisability 
of infinite leisureliness. 



SAN SALVADOR 215 

Spencer quoted Kipling on that head: 

The end of the fight is a tombstone white 
With the name of the dear deceased, 

And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here 
Who tried to hustle the East." 

''That, " said he, "appHes to Central America. 
You see, we are next door to the East — there 's 
nothing at all but the Pacific Ocean between. " 




CHAPTER XI 

HI Dorado 

OR even the casual investigator, 
the most romantic episode linked 
with the conquest of the southern 
^^^^^^ Americas is the quest of that ex- 
traordinary will-o*- the- wisp, commonly known as 
El Dorado. 

*' Imperial El Dorado, roofed with gold; 
Shadows to which, despite all shocks of change, 
All onset of capricious accident. 
Men clung with yearning hopes that would not die." 

Yet to-day little is known of these expeditions 
which at one time commanded such universal 
attention in the New and Old Worlds, principally 
because the records of them are chiefly to be 
found only in rare and all but forgotten Span- 
ish chronicles, buried for centuries in the dusty 
archives of Spain and Peru. 

A modern sequel of the quest for El Dorado 
216 



EL DORADO 217 



was that recounted to me by the British railroad 
manager in Salvador, as mentioned in the pre- 
ceding chapter, and follows. For the further 
more detailed stories concerning the legend I am 
indebted to a number of excellent historic sketches 
by J. A. Manso, Ph.D., which appeared in the 
bulletin of the Pan-American Union. 

To-day "El Dorado" is a misused phrase; it 
has come to imply a land of gold, or a treasure 
place of one kind or another. Literally, it means 
the "gilded one, " being an abbreviated form of the 
Spanish el hombre 6 rey dorado — the gilded man 
or king. The origin of the phrase and its distorted 
meaning is boimd up with the legend of Lake 
Guatavita, near Bogota, the capital of present-day 
Colombia, south of Panama. 

The legend has it that in this lake there was 
a curious monster. So persistent and detailed is 
this portion of the tale that naturalists are inclined 
to believe that perhaps some giant reptile of the 
southern countries by chance migrated from his 
native haunts and inadvertently found his way to 
the lake. Be that as it may, the natives believed 
that there was a monster there and that he required 
an annual offering in the human shape. So each 



2i8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

3^ear a priest was cast into the lake. First, how- 
ever, his body was well greased and rubbed with 
gold dust, so that he literal!}^ became "the gilded 
man," or El Dorado. T\nien the gilded priest 
was thrown in, all who could afford the religious 
luxury cast after him golden ornaments. So it 
came about that the words el dorado and the place 
where gold was to be found became somewhat 
identical in meaning. And when the gold-seeking 
Spaniards came and demanded that they be led to 
*'the place w^here gold was to be found, " naturally 
the answering phrase that passed from mouth to 
mouth among the natives was el dorado, and the 
Spanish conquistador es, taking it up, adopted it 
unconsciously as the title of the treasure places 
they sought. 

A twentieth century aftermath of the search 
for this particular El Dorado occurred in the nine- 
ties, when an English company was organised to 
drain Guatavita. Lured by the legends of the 
offerings that had been cast into the lake in the 
"rare old, fair old golden days," this most pic- 
turesque of treasure hunts was launched, whose 
expenses were to be repaid — plus fabulous profits — 
from the proceeds of the priceless objects retrieved. 



EL DORADO 219 



Enough capital was subscribed to construct a 
tunnel which partially drained the lake. Hund- 
reds of golden ornaments were discovered, all in 
a limited area, indicating the truth of the legend, 
for apparently all had been thrown in the wake of 
the gilded sacrificial priests. But unfortunately 
the tunnel caved in, and it was some years before 
fresh capital undertook the completion of the 
novel enterprise. The expenditure of many thou- 
sand additional dollars resulted in the complete 
draining of the lake; it also accomplished the 
recovery from the muddy bottom of one solitary 
gold ring, valued at less than I50. And that 
brought to a dismal ending this rainbow pursuit 
of El Dorado, the gilded one. 

Even now the glamour of the **goode olde days " 
clings close to the Spanish Main, and the traveller 
with a spark of imaginative enthusiasm can let 
his thoughts wander back to the *' years crowded 
with incident, streaked with tragedy, stained by 
crime, and darkened with intrigue"; years that 
also saw the conquistadores at their best, and were 
rich in heroism, amazing prowess, and matchless 
audacity. For the spirit of romance is still there, 
in the highlands and the lowlands of Central 



220 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

America, and the wanderer among the little 
republics who fails to feel something of it fails 
indeed to gain the full measure of reward for his 
excursion from the beaten paths. 

So a few paragraphs concerning the incident 
of El Dorado, as picturesque as any in the rich 
storehouse of Latin-American history, may be 
admissible in a rambling account whose object 
is not alone to give a picture of Central America 
to-day, but also, if possible, to portray something 
of the spirit of the country as absorbed by one who 
passes through it, with an eye and ear attentive 
to the past and to the future. 

A more detailed account of the Guatavita 
legend follows, told for the most part in the words 
of Dr. Manso. 

It was in 1535 that a roving Indian first told 
the Spaniards the story of the gilded chieftain to 
whom they forthwith gave the name of El Dorado 
— the Gilded Man or King — a name which was 
subsequently applied not only to the gilded chief 
himself, but also to the city wherein he was sup- 
posed to reside. At that time Sebastian Belalcazar, 
the lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, was in Quito, 
and here it was, according to Castellanos, where — 



EL DORADO 221 



An alien Indian, hailing from afar, 
Who in the town of Quito did abide, 
And neighbour claimed to be of Bogota, 
There having come, I know not by what way, 
Did with him speak and solemnly announce 
A country rich in emeralds and gold. 

Also, among the. things which them engaged, 
A certain king he told of who, disrobed, 
Upon a lake was wont, aboard a raft. 
To make oblations, as himself had seen. 
His regal form o'er spread with fragrant oil 
On which was laid a coat of powdered gold 
From sole of foot unto his highest brow, 
Resplendent as the beaming of the sun. 

Arrivals without end, he further said, 

Were there to make rich votive offerings 

Of golden trinkets and of emeralds rare 

And divers other of their ornament : 

And worthy credence these things he affirmed; 

The soldiers, light of heart and well content. 

Then dubbed him El Dorado, and the name 

By countless ways was spread throughout the world. 

According to the chronicler, Juan Rodriguez 
Fresle, who was a son of one of the conquistadores 
of New Granada, the lake on which were made 
these offerings of gold and emeralds was Guatavita, 
a short distance to the north-east of Bogota. And 



222 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the source of his information respecting the nature 
of the ceremonies connected with these offerings 
was, he assures us, no less than one Don Juan, the 
cacique of Guatavita, who was the nephew of the 
chief who bore sway at the time of the arrival of 
the Spaniards under Jimenez de Quesada, and who 
was then preparing himself by a six years' fast 
to succeed his uncle as cacique of Guatavita. After 
this long fast, which was made imder the most 
trying conditions, the successor to the caciqueship 
was obliged to go to the lake of Guatavita and 
offer sacrifice to the devil, who, Fresle informs 
us, was regarded by the aborigines as their god and 
master. After being stripped, he was anointed 
with a viscous earth, which was then overspread 
with powdered gold in such wise that the chief was 
covered with this metal from head to foot. He 
was then placed on a balsa provided with a great 
quantity of gold and emeralds, which he was to 
offer to his god. Arriving at the middle of the 
lake, which was surrounded by a vast multitude 
of men and women, shouting and playing on 
musical instruments of various kinds, he made his 
offering by throwing into the lake all the treasure 
which he had at his feet. After this ceremony was 



EL DORADO 22; 



over, he returned to the shore, where, amid ac- 
clamations, music, and rejoicing, he was received 
as their legitimate lord and prince. 

"From this ceremony," our author continues, 
"was derived that name, so celebrated, of 'El 
Dorado,' which has cost so many lives and so 
much treasure. It was in Peru that this name 
Dorado was first heard. Sebastian Belalcazar, 
having met near Quito an Indian from Bogota, 
who told him about the gilded man just described, 
exclaimed, 'Let us go in search of that gilded 
Indian.'" 

According toPadre Gumilla, the word "Dorado" 
had a different origin from that assigned by Fresle 
and CasteUanos. It originated, declares the 
writer, on the Caribbean coast near Cartagena 
and Santa Marta, whence it passed to Velez and 
thence to Bogota. When the Spaniards reached 
the elevated plain of Cundinamarca, they learned 
that "El Dorado was in the pleasant and fertile 
vaUey of Sogamoso. " On reaching this place they 
found that the priest who made his oblation in the 
great temple there was wont to anoint at least his 
hands and face with a certain kind of resin over 
which powdered gold was blown through a hollow 



224 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

reed or cane. From this circumstance the famous 
** Dorado" took his name. 

Another account refers to the expedition of 
Gonzalo Pizarro to the land of Canela — cinnamon 
— in 1543. The ostensible object of the expedition 
was that of exploration, but its real purpose seems 
to have been the universal quest of ''the great and 
wonderful prince who was called El Dorado.'* 

"When I ask," writes Oviedo, "why they call 
this prince the Gilded Cacique or King, the Span- 
iards, who have been in Quito or have come to 
Santo Domingo, make reply that from what the}^ 
hear respecting this from the Indians, this great 
lord or prince goes about continually covered 
with gold as finely pulverised as fine salt. For it 
seemeth to him that to wear any other kind of 
apparel is less beautiful, and that to put on pieces 
or arms of gold stamped or fashioned by a hammer 
or otherwise is to use something plain or common, 
like that which is worn by other rich lords and 
princes when they wish; but that to powder one- 
self with gold is something strange, unusual, and 
new and more costly, because that which one 
puts on in the morning is removed and washed off 
in the evening and falls to the ground and is lost. 



EL DORADO 225 



And this he does every day in the year. While 
walking clothed and covered in this manner his 
movements are imimpeded and the graceful pro- 
portions of his person, of which he greatly prides 
himself, are seen in beauty tmadomed. " 

From the foregoing it is seen that at the time of 
the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in South 
America, three different reports were in circulation 
regarding the mysterious personage called El 
Dorado. That there were other accounts is 
undoubted, and some of them, perhaps, as authen- 
tic. And that there should have been different 
stories regarding the character and place of abode 
of this marvellous savage is what might have been 
expected by one who knows how prone the Indians 
are to exaggerate or to modify what they have 
heard, so as to suit their own fancy, says Dr. 
Manso. 

The same may, in a measure, be said of the 
Spaniards also. After the successes achieved by 
their coimtrymen in Mexico and Peru, and after 
the millions of treasure which had been found in 
the lands of the Aztecs, Chibchas, and Incas, they 
were prepared for anything. Nothing seemed 
impossible, and no tale about gilded men or golden 



226 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

palaces was so extravagant as to be rejected as 
false. They were ready to give full credence to 
even greater fictions than the Golden Fleece or the 
Apples of the Hesperides, and would not have been 
surprised to find Ophir or Tarshish in the valleys 
of the Orinoco or Amazon. The spirit of adven- 
ture and romance dominated every one not only 
in the Indies but in the mother coimtry as well. 

"For all this Spanish nation," writes an old 
chronicler, "is so desirous of novelties that what 
way so ever they bee called with a becke only, or 
soft whispering voyce, to anything arising above 
water, they speedily prepare themselves to flie and 
forsake certainties, to follow incertainties, which 
we may gather by that which is past." 

And, in truth, that characteristic recorded by 
the chronicler is not outlived yet in southern 
Spanish land. For the sons of the old conquista- 
dor e stock — misbegotten as many of them are, 
intermingled with baser blood, and weaker by 
many multiples in body, mind, and spirit — are the 
same old Spaniards at heart. Let a " soft whisper- 
ing voyce " call, and they '11 follow to the rainbow's 
end. 



CHAPTER XII 
Salvadorian Sidelights 




ALVADOR is a sturdy little country 
of sturdy people. The racial 
strength results from the fact that 
Salvadorians are descended from 
excellent Spanish stock, the greater portion of 
the original immigration having come from the 
Viscaya districts, where were able-bodied men of 
ambition and thrift. 

And these qualities they have retained, to a 
great extent, thanks to the highland healthiness 
and, especially, to the fact that from the first 
Salvadorians have been clannish to a fault; their 
portion of the general Spanish immigration has 
held aloof from intermixture, for the most part, 
and the strain has remained pure and wholesome. 
If Salvador is referred to as clannish, Costa 
Rica should be reverted to for a word, as certainly 
that proud little land is by all odds the most clan- 
nish of them all. A good Costa Rican considers 

227 



228 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

his country as a thing quite apart from the other 
repubHcs. 

*'The mail boat has just arrived from Central 
America," is the way they speak of a vessel's 
coming from the north in San Jose, according to a 
current story. 

In Costa Rica settlement was made almost 
exclusively by Basques, whose blood now de- 
cisively overbalances that of the native Indians, 
with great benefit to the country. Not so, how- 
ever, in Honduras and Nicaragua, where the for- 
eign strain is the least apparent. Racially (and 
economically, too) these countries are retrograding. 

"If they are left to themselves they will go back 
to barbarism," said an American Consul General, 
whose name cannot be quoted. 

Salvador's modem history began in 1524 when 
Cortez conquered Mexico and sent Alvarado to 
Salvador, who in the following year captured 
Cuscatlan and officially subdued the country. In 
1 82 1 Salvador joined the Central American Fed- 
eration, which was absorbed by Mexico under 
Iturbide in the following year, Salvador, however, 
objecting to the proceeding. Almost immediately 
Mexico lost the controlling reins, upon the death 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 229 

of the Emperor, and Salvador again entered the 
confederation, in which it remained until 1841, 
when it formally withdrew and thenceforward 
maintained its independence. 

But, truth to tell, we were more interested in 
Salvador's present than in its past, and concerned 
ourselves chiefly with having a good time, a 
pursuit in which we were ably abetted by some 
''native Americans," if the hybrid term be 
permitted. 

One evening a Spanish gentleman called upon 
us. His name does n't matter. He had been 
educated in San Francisco, and was equipped to 
see both sides of the native Salvadorian life. 
According to the usual order of things, our caller 
and we walked in the plaza, where we eventually 
sat down, listening to the band music and chatting 
of social customs. 

Salvador's social life, it seems, is a negligible 
quantity so far as the ladies are concerned. The 
men can go to the clubs, of which there are several, 
but for the women there is little or nothing to do. 
''Calls," the social mainstay of our own feminine 
society, are few and far between. One reason for 
the ban on "calling" is that unmarried men fight 



230 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

shy of the custom, chiefly because when a suitor, 
or a possible suitor, comes to a home to see his 
lady, Spanish propriety compels mama or papa, 
or both, or in fact the ''whole dam family, " to be 
in the room during the call; and naturally this 
superabundance of chaperoning is n't eminently 
popular with the subjects of its attention. So the 
young men prefer walking in the parks when the 
band plays, for under such circumstances even 
the most persistent chaperon is apt to weary of a 
stem chase and seek a bench, allowing the couple 
to walk for at least a few minutes unmolested. 

"It 's really wonderful that our young men ever 
get a chance to pop the question!" laughed our 
informant. 

He admitted that in his own case the lady of his 
heart had been won during a waltz. Dances offer 
the one great chance for wooing, because it is then 
possible to whisper sweet nothings at close range 
without being overheard. Senor D. also told 
amusingly of a Salvadorian cousin of his, a girl 
who was being educated in San Francisco, and 
had become engaged there to an American. Her 
father visited her and was scandalised beyond 
words when he found that her fiance actually 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 231 

held tete-a-tetes without a chaperon hearing every 
word that passed between them. That particular 
case, however, resulted in an international mar- 
riage, despite the attempted paternal censorship. 

There is a deeper side to all this, and one that 
has been noticed specially at Panama, since 
American customs in such matters have rubbed 
shoulders with the Spanish ways. The girls know 
nothing at all when they are married. In fact 
it is almost fair to say that they practically do 
not know their husbands; they are married as 
strangers might marry. In hundreds of cases, in 
the better classes, bride and groom have never 
exchanged a dozen sentences, unheard by others, 
previous to their wedding. One result, of course, 
is unhappiness, and no doubt it chiefly falls upon 
the wife, for she is tied down as closely after mar- 
riage as before, while the husband may go where 
he will, and, seemingly, do about as he chooses 
with little or no unfavourable comment. 

One of the show places of Salvador is Lake 
Ilopango, some four hours' drive from the capital. 
There two hotels are to be found, whose special 
attractions are bathing facilities, not to mention 
beautiful gardens and equally beautiful natural 



232 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

surroundings, for the lake in itself is a scenic gem 
set in an environment of surpassing natural loveli- 
ness. One of the real features of the Ilopango trip 
is the road connecting it with San Salvador — a 
saddle-horse road only, for most of the distance — 
a highly picturesque route, used by crowds of 
pleasure-seekers on Sundays and holidays. 

One afternoon our friend 0. took us in his huge 
French automobile to see a little of San Salvador's 
surroundings. As the roads don't venture very 
far in any one direction, and are passably poor at 
that, "a little " is the most of Salvador that one can 
glimpse from an auto, under the most favourable 
circumstances. Over an unspeakable highway 
we went to the coffee henejicio, or mill, of Senor 
Miguel Duenas, a couple of miles from town, at 
the bottom of a winding grade of incredible steep- 
ness. The dust was six inches deep and powdery, 
and the bumps were endless; a worse road for an 
auto could not be imagined. 

A high adobe wall surrounded the finca. Inside 
the gate was a courtyard, faced by the buildings 
of the mill on two sides, and by the wall and the 
drying patios on the others. 

This was a "wet process" mill, and not one of 



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SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 233 

the largest or most up-to-date in the country, nor 
nearly as elaborate as many establishments we 
saw later in Guatemala. 

The coffee as it comes from the tree resembles 
small cherries. First the outer covering of the 
"cherry" is scrubbed off mechanically, by a 
machine somewhat like a dish-washer that swishes 
its dishes around with revolving brushes in a tank. 
Then, by a process of fermentation in large con- 
crete tanks, the inner double nuts or beans are 
further cleaned — a process that smells anything 
but fragrant. Next the almost-clean but still 
slimy berries are placed in the concrete or tiled 
open courts, or patios, where they are exposed to 
the sun for periods ranging from one to six days. 
After this another mechanical cleaning process is 
indulged in, the berries being ground together 
sufficiently to scrape them clean of the final shreds 
of the scum which the sun has dried hard upon 
them. After this the beans are sorted through a 
machine which operates much like a stone crusher's 
sorter, the graded beans of different sizes coming 
out of chutes and being placed in bags. 

A final process through which the berries pass 
before the bags are sewed up for shipment is a 



234 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

hand sorting. Women and children chiefly are 
employed for this work, which they do by the 
piece, their pay in Salvador averaging about 
fifteen cents a day. ^ 

In addition to this munificent wage, every 
worker is entitled to two meals a day, one at noon 
and the other in the evening. The luxury of a 
breakfast is omitted. The two meals the Indians 
do get consist of two tortillas a man per meal, with 
as many black beans, or frijoles, piled on top as the 
recipient can contrive to balance. As the tortillas 
are about five inches in diameter the reader with 
a trend for mathematical calculation can readily 
figure out how many rusty-looking beans con- 
stitute the allotment. 

The meals are prepared by old women. A dark 
hole of a room, ventilated only by the door and 
a single window that opens into the courtyard, 
serves as kitchen. Along one side, on a sort of 
coimter of stone, are four or five charcoal fires, 
giving much the appearance of a blacksmith forge. 
Over the fires are crude gridirons. And here the 
tortillas, distant and solider cousins to our Yankee 
hot cakes, flourish. Nor do the eaters fail to 
enjoy the tough and unsalted dough; the care 




The coffee berry at close range 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 235 

with which the earthenware crocks containing the 
uncooked corn-meal batter are guarded would 
seem to hint that there are enthusiasts who would 
even tackle that ! 

Of course, the beans figure heavily in this culi- 
nary department and great steaming pots over 
the smaller fires are watched hungrily by all eyes. 
* ' Tortillas and frijoles! ' ' Faith, what epicure would 
ask for more! As a matter of fact, the combina- 
tion forms the universal diet of the poor classes 
throughout Latin Land. 

The applicants for meals file in and are allotted 
their share of the plunder, a strict tab being kept 
upon them, so that it is quite impossible for 
*' repeaters" to operate successfully. As they go 
out balancing their meal in one hand, with the 
other they grab up huge handfuls of salt to 
sprinkle over the beans. The amount of salt used 
is phenomenal. With a saucerful of beans it is 
safe to say that the average native will use a 
heaping tablespoon of salt, if he is fortunate 
enough to get so much. 

On the homeward trip we chanced to spy the 
entrance to one of the primitive native pottery 
works, and investigated. The "works" sur- 



236 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

rounded a little courtyard. On one side were the 
ovens in which the modelled materials were baked 
— bricked-in affairs about four feet square and 
eight feet high inside, with furnaces beneath, fed 
with wood from a stoker's chamber dug in the 
ground beside them. The tops of the roofs were 
fantastically decorated with gargoyles and other 
contrivances. With the fiery red embers below 
and the heat waves exuding from the cracks in the 
adobe and brick walls, there was quite an air of 
accomplishment about the ovens. After the 
pottery has been baked for twenty-four hours, the 
bricked-in doors are torn down and the articles 
are ready to be painted with a preparation which 
gives them a glossy coat, this being baked into 
the clay with another short oven treatment. 

Across the courtyard from the ovens was the 
workshop of the moulders, which is nothing more 
than a thatched shed open toward the court, 
equipped with benches and crude lattice. Al- 
though it was after hours, as Salvador is not blessed 
with labour unions we had no difficulty in persuad- 
ing a young fellow to do a little work for us. He 
was an apprentice, he explained, a trifle apologetic 
for his inaptitude. 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 237 

The lathe system is crudity itself. In all 
probability the same kind was used two thousand 
years ago, in the lands from which came the first 
earth user who taught the native Indians improved 
methods of pottery making. The worker sits on 
a bench, his legs hanging down through a hole, 
allowing his feet to revolve a heavy wooden disk 
beneath, which turns about horizontally as he 
shuffles it around with bare toes and heels. From 
this motive disk a rod comes up through the bench 
and turns another smaller disk just in front of the 
artisan, a few inches above the bench. This disk, 
the lathe proper, is nothing more than a heavy 
piece of rounded wood, flat on top and about fif- 
teen inches in diameter. 

First a helper selects a hunk of muddy clay from 
an urn. After kneading it for a few minutes on a 
wet bread-board affair, he hands it over to the 
artist, who slaps it down upon the revolving disk 
before him. He places his wet hands on the mov- 
ing mass of clay and with a swiftness that is posi- 
tively imcanny the material takes shape and 
sprouts upward, smoothing out and curving 
gracefully into the outlines of a vase. Then the 
creator (he is literally such) picks up a bit of thick 



238 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

leather and gives a touch here and a turn there, 
and, lo and behold! a beautiful, graceful form 
emerges, well proportioned, with tasteful lines, and 
light and fragile as any connoisseur could desire. 
A quick application of a piece of string, cunningly 
held between trained fingers, and the new-made 
vase is cut clean from the remaining clay at its 
base. 

It is a matter of seconds only. The boy worker 
grins his appreciation of your praise, and when you 
give him the few reals he has so well earned by 
his deft exhibition, even more of his white teeth 
show. 

"What a catchy number for a vaudeville act,** 
says the practical American. "It would make a 
hit on Broadway." And as we drive to the 
Foreigners' Club through the fast falling twilight, 
he expatiates upon just how the new act should 
be presented. It reminded me of a trip I once 
made across Norway with an American banker. 
Whenever we happened upon a bit of particularly 
attractive scenery, he immediately assessed it in 
dollars and cents; what it would be "worth" 
in America was his slogan. "If we only had that 
in Central Park!" was the inevitable exclamation 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 239 

when some telling bit of the fjordland came to 
view. 

On the homeward drive we passed the house of 
the former president, a "nest egg" laid during his 
profitable administration, 0. called it. It appears 
that the former chief executive acquired the habit 
of setting aside such provisions for a rainy day. 
Taken all in all, it was a very creditable looking 
egg, was that palace home. 

The ''white house" of San Salvador lies directly 
across the street from the city's principal barracks. 
Rumour has it that there is a secret underground 
passage between the two, which is not improbable. 
A less believable embellishment to the tale is that 
the masons who constructed the tunnel, after the 
job was completed, were exiled to a remote interior 
town from which they never returned. 

Later, at the Foreign Club, conversation drifted 
around to a comparison of Central with North 
American politics. Some of the Americans ridi- 
culed the farcical local elections, wherein the 
*' official candidate" is always elected, for the good 
and sufficient reason that there are no other can- 
didates, or if there are, no one dares to vote for 
them. 



240 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

"Why is that any worse than the American wor- 
ship of the machine candidate?" asked an intel- 
ligent Salvadorian member of the group, an edu- 
cated man broad enough to appreciate the draw- 
backs of his little land, and yet with enough real 
patriotism to stand up for her merits. ''You in 
North America swallow whole the candidate offered 
to the public by the party in power. It is a foregone 
conclusion that the party candidate will be elected. 
It is folly to oppose him, and rank heresy for a 
party member to vote against the choice of his 
party rulers." 

That remark, of course, was delivered half a 
year before our presidential convention of 1912 
produced a third candidate, and the November 
election endorsed Democracy instead of Republi- 
canism. However, in the sense meant, it would 
hold water under any circumstances. 

In Salvador, by the way, every one over eighteen 
years of age must vote or pay a fine equivalent to 
one dollar. Most of the well-to-do prefer the fine, 
especially as the ballot is not secret, and if one 
happened to vote for the wrong man, the after 
results might be unpleasant. 

Of course, some one broached the matter of our 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 241 

inhuman treatment of negro offenders in the South 
and elsewhere, and of our persistent labour tragedies. 

That is an unpleasant habit which the peoples of 
the earth have when we Americans spread-eagle 
overmuch, or a little too enthusiastically point out 
the moats in the eyes of others. The lynching 
of a coloured law-breaker, or the tragic results of a 
"dynamite plot, " they tell us, are far worse curses 
for a republic than the petty political ills of the 
southern lands which we so often contemptuously 
style "barbaric." Indeed, an American's patri- 
otic egotism is not above receiving intelligent 
bumps even in the smallest and most backward 
of our Httle brother republics, at the hands of 
well-read men familiar with the fundamental 
faults of the peoples of the western hemisphere. 
For instance, that minor matter of the compara- 
tive drunkenness and disorder at home and in 
Central America constantly crops up; for it is 
imdeniable that a North American play-time 
crowd of the poorer class is far more drunken and 
disorderly than ever is the case south of Mexico. 
Latin characteristic cheerfulness, perhaps, is the 
reason. 

An amusing incident was told regarding Pru- 
16 



242 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

dencio Alfaro, who now resides in Guatemala for 
the good and sufficient reason that he is "wanted" 
in Salvador. 

Senor Alfaro has the presidential itch. He said 
that he was not allowed to be a candidate at 
the last election when Dr. Araujo was selected, the 
latter being the '* official candidate." After 
the election the President asked Alfaro to have 
a friendly talk with him, the story goes, but 
the latter was a bit rude in his reply, and so ami- 
cable relations were suspended. Somewhat later 
Alfaro figured in a ''wake" at Santa Anna, a town 
in northern Salvador. There were a coffin, candles, 
and liquors; likewise an excited crowd, and a 
considerable amount of firearms. The only ad- 
junct to the wake that was lacking was the 
corpse — for there wasn't any. The "wake" was 
a ruse to cover a meeting for the organisation 
of an uprising in favour of Alfaro. Unfortunately 
for the success of the scheme, the government 
soldiers got wind of it and swooped down before 
matters had progressed far. And Alfaro removed 
his residence to Guatemala. 

Our last evening in San Salvador was spent 
autoing. First the car took us far out on the 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 243 



road that leads to Guatemala, the old highway 
that for years was the chief artery of travel all 
the way through to Mexico. Far away over the 
moonlit valleys we could see the filmy outlines 
of the hills of Honduras, the hazy middle distance 
having been the scene of many an international 
war, and, no doubt, many an incident worthy 
of the pen of novelist or historian. 

By the roadside we hurried past occasional ox- 
carts, camping for the night, returning from 
country fincas to the market of San Salvador, 
Under the carts in the dust, and on top of their 
loads, when those loads happened to be corn, slept 
the mozos, while the big clumsy oxen munched 
nearby, tied to some tree or fence. Many a 
driver awoke abruptly from his pastoral sleep as 
the big motor chugged past, startled by the appari- 
tion that whirled through the midst of his dreams 
and so quickty vanished among the dust clouds 
of the old road, a highway no doubt often trod by 
the mounts of the royal cavaliers of yore, the pride 
of Spain, who marched and countermarched its 
length in their first conquests of the land, and from 
whose blood, perhaps, this very dreaming half- 
bred driver may have sprung. 



244 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

"El Diablo/'' grunted the ox drivers, as they 
spit out the dust we bequeathed them, and sank 
again into slumber. 

Assuredly there could be no stranger contrast 
in transportation methods than that afforded by 
the powerful, dashing touring car, the boast of 
some French shop, and the archaic ox-carts. It 
was the essence of modernity rubbing shoulders 
with a relic of barbaric yesterday. 

Those Salvadorian ox-carts, by the way, have 
a wealth of local interest. From the details of 
their appearance the initiated can tell whence they 
come with surprising precision. For instance, 
those with solid wheels hail from the far side of 
the Lempa River; few of them are seen in town. 
The drivers of these strange carts carry longer and 
sharper goads than their fellows of the city, whose 
beasts are better trained. The sides of the carts 
that come from the sugar districts are made of 
pressed cane. Bamboo sides indicate still another 
section, while the carts from the cattle country 
are lined with hides, bound together with leather 
thongs. 

Returning, we chanced upon a strange nocturnal 
Passion Play at the village of Mexijcanos. A 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 245 

score of children were performing before a table 
in a decorated doorway, where lay the symbolical 
new-bom Christ. The children, white-clad and 
bearing crooks, were the legendary shepherds, 
leading to the homage of the Christ three other 
tots, who judging by the stupendous length 
of their cotton batting beards must have repre- 
sented the three Wise Men. Curiously enough 
the music twanged by guitar and fiddle was unmis- 
takably impressive, despite the absurd fact that 
those solemn youngsters were chanting biblical 
words to the unescapable ''Merry Widow" — we 
had heard it in cafes in New York, at a cock fight 
in Panama, in the Carib huts in the banana 
jungles of Costa Rica — in fact, everywhere and at 
all hours; but this was unquestionably the occa- 
sion at which the Viennese opera shone most 
conspicuously ! 

Our amusement, however, was inexplicable to 
those proud relatives, the spectators, of all ages, 
colours, and previous conditions of servitude, who 
were most intent upon the developments of the 
carefully practised play, in which, it was easy to 
see, the youthful flower of the community was 
starring. A few tapers supplied light, scarcely 



246 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

needed, however, thanks to the generous illumina- 
tion of a full moon. A quainter scene, or one more 
unexpected, it would be difficult to encounter on 
a nocturnal automobile jaunt on this or any other 
continent. 

But alas for the solemnity of the Passion Play! 
The appearance of a sixty horse-power automobile 
was a cruel counter-attraction, to be withstood by 
the righteous only with heroic fortitude. Despite 
it, however, the audience stood by its guns man- 
fully, and the play might have progressed to a full 
house and a happy conclusion had the demoraliz- 
ing influence ceased with the car alone. But add 
to it a tall white lady, strangely clad, and three 
bare-headed Gringos — mad Gringos, indeed, for 
who but a mad Gringo would go bareheaded, 
especially at night time? — and the strain became 
too great. 

First the small boys focused their attention upon 
us and the car, after the habit of youngsters, who 
invariably prefer doing what they should not to 
that which they should. Then gradually the 
larger lads, with pop eyes, infinite curiosity, and 
a babble of comment, gathered to take in all the 
details of the new attraction. They became bolder. 



SALVADORIAN SIDELIGHTS 247 

Strengthened by the addition to their inquisitive 
ranks of a mad man and a drunken man (an admir- 
able combination!) they waxed troublesome, until 
finally one contrived to sound the horn. There 
were shouts of delighted laughter and gnmts of 
disapproval. The players wavered in their lines. 
A threatening growl went up. Even the "Merry 
Widow" for once seemed to hesitate. 

Clearty, we were not desirable adjuncts to a mid- 
night Passion Play. So we left, standing not upon 
the order of our going. Not, however, until all 
the youth of Mexijcanos had tagged after us a 
block or two, hooting and throwing gravel and 
sand. 




CHAPTER XIII 

Into Guatemala 

UATEMALA is reached like all the 
other republics. There is a sea- 
port, a railroad journey, and then 
the pleasant highlands and the 
capital. 

San Jose de Guatemala is the western entrance, 
and there we arrived late one hot January night 
and landed early the next morning. 

Our disembarkation proved something of a dip- 
lomatic event, thanks to the presence of two for- 
eign ministers, one from Salvador and the other 
from Portugal, the latter with a pretty little wife 
and a vast amount of baggage. There was, of 
course, official greeting for the foreign representa- 
tives, but even the sacredness of the international 
relations involved could not mitigate the humours 
and near-tragedies of the landing. 

At seven, or thereabout, we were lowered over 

the ship's side in breakfastless misery, and down 

248 



INTO GUATEMALA 249 

into the waiting lighter by means of a double seat 
affair that was swung out on a boom and let down 
with block and tackle. The human part of the 
transit was accomplished well enough, but when 
it came to the baggage there were difficulties. 

In the first place, the Portuguese minister — a 
sombre personage' quite devoid of humour — made 
a tactical error, for he consented to leave the 
ship's deck before all of his numerous bags had 
preceded him. But that baggage followed — fast. 
First came a trunk, thrown bodily down, which 
landed in the bottom of the lighter with a splinter- 
ing thud, amid the fruitless but hearty protests of 
the minister and the tears of his better half. Then 
followed a bag of generous proportions and great 
avoirdupois. A bag will gain an astonishing 
momentum if left to its own devices in a drop of 
fifteen or more feet, and this one alighted almost a 
total wreck. More tears from Madame, and more 
unministerial imprecations from the Portuguese 
diplomat, who became anything but diplomatic. 
Finally, perhaps thanks to the Castilian meta- 
phors and the tearful feminine French, the red- 
faced pirate who presided over the baggage 
smashing operations repented, and the rest of 



250 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the luggage was let down into the lighter by 
ropes, with some pretence of care. We who 
witnessed the exhibition decided that a first- 
class addition to a west coast travelHng equipment 
would be a parachute, attachable to trunks for 
such occasions. 

Landing at the high iron -legged wharf was char- 
acteristic of the method in vogue at most of the 
ports. A boom or crane swings out from the wharf 
over the lighter, which rides some twenty or thirty 
feet below on the water beside the slippery piles, 
probably pounding and lurching in the everlasting 
swell that rolls in "out of China, 'cross the sea." 
Suspended from the boom is a bird-cage affair 
which is lowered to the floor of the lighter; into 
this four or five passengers crowd and are hoisted 
through the air with a bewildering upward whirl 
and then deposited on the wharf, where they are 
released. 

"There's room for four acquaintances or five 
friends, " was the way a fellow-passenger expressed 
the carrying capacity of the San Jose cage. 

In rough weather similar contrivances are used 
on the steamers when placing passengers aboard 
Hghters, only there a cask capable of accommodat- 



;4^^J4«^'V 



^ 




" Nearly every landing is made through the medium of Ughters " 




One of the few fine roads in Salvador 



INTO GUATEMALA 251 

ing one person is usually employed. When there 
is a sea running this method of disembarkation is 
as strenuous as it is novel, and even at the wharves 
it is highly picturesque to see the cage swing out 
over the ocean, with a background of blue sky and 
distant white beach, depositing its burden in the 
snub-nosed, rocking lighter, where coffee sacks, 
bales of merchandise and hides, boxes, women 
with gay parasols, perspiring drummers, and the 
barefooted and often shirtless members of the 
crew are mingled with an awesome disregard to 
anything but the convenience of the minute. 

Indeed, disembarkation of humans or of freight 
is an interesting study along the west coast of 
Central America. Some one should write a treatise 
upon it, perhaps called ''One Hundred Curious and 
Inconvenient Methods of Making a Landing, " and 
assuredly there is enough and to spare, both in 
text and illustrative material, to make up a unique 
work. 

With two exceptions, every landing on the coast 
is made through the medium of lighters, and in many 
instances these do not go to any wharf, for the good 
and sufficient reason that there is none to go to, 
but instead are beached and unloaded by men who 



252 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

wade out into the water, shoulder high, and carry 
huge burdens ashore. At Amapala, in Honduras, 
this method is very picturesque, and vastly labour- 
some. There we saw bronze- skinned huskies bear- 
ing rolls of barbed wire, kegs of nails, and every 
conceivable sort of merchandise from the lighters 
to the shore and staggering back under great 
packages of hides. At Ocos, in northern Guate- 
mala, the landing is quite venturesome, for it is 
necessary to guide the clumsy lighters through the 
surf with a continuous cable, which is moored out 
in deep water and is kept in motion during the 
landing by a steam winch ashore, or by horses, when 
the winch is out of commission, a matter of fre- 
quent occurrence. 

All this means that the freight gets some rough 
handling even before it is on terra firma, while 
thereafter all sorts of experiences may be in store 
for it, varying from piecemeal transportation on 
the backs of burros over scores of miles of moun- 
tainous trails to almost equally severe treatment en 
route on miniature tropical railroads. Wherefore 
it is no uncommon sight to see broken crates and 
damaged freight. 

Even a casual observer remarks that the crating 




Barbed wire for Honduras. Primitive lightering method at Amapala 




Amapala, Honduras 



INTO GUATEMALA 253 

and general packing of goods originating in Europe 
seems to be better, on an average, than those which 
come from our own manufacturers. Consuls and 
men in Central American retail business will tell 
you, however, that during the last three years our 
exporters have made notable progress in shipping 
methods, and are now, through familiarity and 
bitter experience, fairly well versed in the peculiar 
needs of the territory so far as extreme packing 
precautions are concerned. 

An incident related by a druggist in one of the 
republics illustrates the importance of close atten- 
tion to proper packing, and the havoc which an 
incompetent New York shipping clerk may create. 
He had received a big box upside down. Its rough 
treatment had seriously damaged the contents, 
and it all happened because a comma had been 
misplaced. 

"Alto, no debe tumbarse, " was the way the direc- 
tions should have been written, meaning "Care, 
not to be turned over. " But their translation, as 
actually written, read: "Care not, to be turned 
over" — an exhortation which seemed to have 
been followed implicitly. 

Landing of passengers is accomplished in many 



254 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ways, as intimated. At some of the more enter- 
prising ports rowboats or launches hover about the 
gangway, soliciting patronage, and often this com- 
petition brings about amusing incidents. I re- 
member that at Acapulco on the Coast of Mexico 
a bitter war was being waged between two rival 
boatmen. Both had placards soliciting business, 
the one of the ''automobile launch" printed 
abominably by a Mexican whose English was 
original, and that of his rival typewritten very 
dirtily. The latter plea for patronage was a work 
of art, and I copy it here verbatim: 

Caballero! Read this, then do! 

Although my name is Rico (Rich) I em pore. All 
I have is two good boats the New York & May Flour 
which bring bread to my family through your kindness. 

Our boats were filled until a rich man, wanting to 
get richer, got a gasoline launch and resolved to drive 
our boats, propelled by blistering hands. I have 
nothing left but to appeal to you. 

Always take the NEW YORK Or May Flour. 

Our knowledge of this town is perfect. 

As the price for the round trip was ten cents, we 
*'then did" and always patronised the "May 
Flour," with apologies to any Puritan ancestors 




How freight is handled in the southland 



INTO GUATEMALA 255 

we may have had. I was never able to discover 
who provided the rhetoric for that appeal. 

Another incident of the west coast that will be 
remembered by any one who has made the trip 
concerns Ocos, the northern port of Guatemala 
and ''the only port in Central America where there 
is always a ship." For Ocos makes that boast 
with good reason, as a 5000- ton Cosmos line 
freighter parted her cable one night some years 
ago and drifted ashore, while, 't is said, the after- 
effects of much good German beer occupied the 
attention of her officers and crew. Now that 
freighter adorns the beach, a hundred yards or so 
from the water's edge, for the sands have built 
up around her. After futile efforts to get her off, 
the insurance company sold the ship to a local 
capitalist, the purchaser having had a dream in 
which the Virgin Mary appeared and promised to 
float the vessel. Unfortunately for the invest- 
ment, the visionary promise was n't fulfilled, so 
the steamer lies where she struck, still fully 
equipped with engines, compasses, boats, and even 
some six hundred tons of Australian coal. Occa- 
sionally the amphibious white elephant is painted, 
so that altogether it looks quite natty, and cer- 



256 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

tainly most extraordinary far up on the sands of 
this diminutive and woefully desolate little landing 
place. 

But to return to our own landing. 

The customs examination was not at all dis- 
agreeable, as we had been warned it would be by 
''experienced" people who added a further mis- 
statement of the actual facts by reiterating that 
travelling in Guatemala was both difficult and 
dangerous. It is neither, and as to the customs, an 
average piratical New York inspector seems like 
a demon incarnate when compared to the mild- 
mannered little gentlemen at San Jose whose chief 
duty, we were told, was to prevent arms from 
entering the country. 

One of the interesting things about the customs 
is that no silver can be exported. Take away all 
of the filthy ''shinplasters" you want (which will 
be none at all!), but don't venture to deport any 
of the meagre store of silver. However, as one 
very seldom sees silver in circulation, the tempta- 
tion is remote. 

Although the examination of the chance trav- 
eller is not irksome, importers occasionally en- 
counter difficulties. For instance, a week later, 



INTO GUATEMALA 257 

at the Gran Hotel in Guatemala city, a very mo- 
rose commercial traveller opened up his heart and 
his grievances to me. He represented an electric 
supply house, of Chicago, I think. The Guate- 
malan government was considering the installa- 
tion of some electrical equipment, chief among 
which, if I remember correctly, was to be a dis- 
play sign announcing some of the virtues of the 
administration. The drummer reached the cap- 
ital readily enough, but could n't get his sample 
lights and equipment through the Puerto Barrios 
customs. The article which seemed to stick 
chiefly in the official crop, so to speak, was an 
electric vacuum cleaner, in which the enterprising 
Yankee hoped to interest the Guatemalan govern- 
ment. It appeared that but a short time before 
some less altruistic individual had tried to smuggle 
in an infernal machine — also intended to clean 
up the government! — and with this incident fresh 
in mind the port officials were running no chances 
with diabolical contrivances of which they wotted 
not. Finally, after weeks of delay, that stranded 
drummer secured a special dispensation and got 
his cleaner to the capital. 

San Jose de Guatemala is like Atlantic City in 
17 



258 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

that it has a board walk. However, there the 
resemblance ends. 

Beside the board walk and the beach there are 
a railroad depot, a cable station, wharf company 
offices, barracks, and a couple of hotels. Behind 
the walk, hidden from the refreshing breeze, 
snuggles a dilapidated town, which is little more 
than a few hundred bedraggled shacks clustered 
about a hopelessly hot plaza. 

Later, we came to know San Jose very well. 
Indeed, far too well, for we were stranded there 
two mortal weeks awaiting a steamer which refused 
to arrive upon scheduled time or any other way. 
But there are less pleasant places than San Jose in 
which to be stranded and ''The Playa" was not 
a bad sort of hotel at all. A few months after we 
left, it burned, and of ''The Playa" it need not be 
said, as of Caesar, that "the evil men do lives after 
them, the good is oft interred with their bones." 
For there are comfortable breezy balconies sur- 
rounding its two floors, upon which the rooms 
opened seaward and landward, so that ocean- 
cooled fresh air was a drug on the market, and a 
delightful one at that. The beds were neither 
better nor worse than the average tropical town 




o 



INTO GUATEMALA 259 

hotel bed, which means that they were nothing 
more than a piece of canvas stretched tightly be- 
tween side braces. At least they were clean 
(there were no available lurking places for even 
an enterprising tropical insect), and, while not 
palatial in their comfort, like London-made ice- 
cream soda, "they were not as bad as they might 
be." 

Just behind the hotel are level fields, so low that 
they can be flooded from the sea, and here a crude 
process of salt refining progresses, the water being 
let in and allowed to evaporate, after which the 
residue of salt is scraped up and stored. As there 
is a prohibitive import duty on salt, every one is 
forced to use the coarse and none too clean native 
product, which sells at a high rate and is said to 
furnish an extremely profitable business to the few 
privileged concessionaires who control the industry. 

Back of the salt fields, peering over the undulat- 
ing line of verdant tree-tops, stands the volcano 
Agua, a beautifully symmetrical peak which rises 
to a height of some 13,000 feet and dominates every 
Guatemalan view much as Fujiyama holds sway 
over scenic Japan. It was Agua, the "Mountain 
of Water," which destroyed the original Guate- 



260 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

mala City, the capital and pride of all Central 
America, in 1541. But the quaint history of the 
mighty mountain shall be reserved for another 
chapter, as later we came upon an intimate footing 
with it, spending a delightful week at its very base 
near the city which it devastated and among the 
ruins of a later city which its sister volcano, Fuego, 
the "Fire Mountain," Hkewise destroyed. And, 
indeed, we came almost to look down upon Agua, 
for ultimately we attained the summit of Acate- 
nango, its loftier neighbour, credited by some with 
being the highest peak in Central America. How- 
ever, when first we saw Agua's cone from the 
Pacific, shimmering and blue in the cloudless 
distance, we greeted it for what it truly is, the 
Queen Beautiful of all southland mountains. 

On the ocean side is the beach and the Pacific, 
both extending as far as the eye can see. Early 
in the morning an occasional fisherman plies his 
leisurely trade along the water's edge. They 
wear nothing at all, do these dusky southern 
editions of well-clad Isaak Walton, but for all that 
appear remarkably modest. Did you ever con- 
sider that a white man, minus clothes, seems in- 
finitely more naked than a black one? I don't 




" The naked fisherman fits into the bright picture admirably " 




The peaks of Acatenango and Fuego, with Antigua in the foreground 



INTO GUATEMALA 261 

pretend to analyse the psychology of the visual 
phenomenon, but it 's a fact. 

These particular naked fishermen fit into the 
bright picture admirably. Physically, they are 
marvels of perfection ; in fact, on the beach of San 
Jose we saw finer specimens of physical manhood 
than were encountered anywhere else. The fish- 
ing consists of standing at the edge of the surf and 
throwing a line far out, after which it is coiled in 
and wound skilfully on the bent forearm, until 
ready for another whirl of the hook and lead about 
the fisherman's head, from which they shoot out 
much as a baseball emerges from the mysterious 
"wind-up" of a pitcher. It is eminently pictur- 
esque; the brown men, their skin glistening in the 
bright morning sunlight, the snowy white surf 
curling up around their legs and then receding, 
each wave taking with it tiny rivulets of the black 
sand, and shoreward the setting of palm fronds and 
greenery, all backed by the majestic peak of Agua, 
as a frame to the picture. 

That is the early morning attraction of the beach. 
Thereafter, until the hot hours of the siesta time 
are passed, the shore front and all the rest of 
San Jose is dead; about the only living thing 



262 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

visible is the sentry on the board walk at the 
entrance to the barracks, and he, barefooted little 
ragamuffin, seems more dead than alive. 

Then toward evening the one daylight diversion 
comes into its own, and the youth and beauty of 
the place take an ocean dip. It is very decidedly 
a "dip" and nothing more, for the women (most 
of the bathers are feminine) venture no farther 
than the extreme edge of the froth that blows in 
from the breaking surf, and there splash about, 
giggle, and pour water on each other with a basin. 
For bathing suits most of them wear simply a 
blanket wrapped about them. None boast stock- 
ings, and not a few of the poorer ones change their 
attire with no other seclusion than that obtained 
by moving a few rods along the beach. Yet when 
my wife went swimming in a very normal skirted 
suit, something of a sensation was created, to say 
nothing of the horrible social shock administered 
when a friend and myself, our travel wardrobes 
not including bathing-suits, appeared in nothing 
more than the most vital half of an abbreviated 
B. V. D. suit of underclothing. 

Social life at San Jose centres about the cantina 
of the Play a Hotel, and for at least one expatriated 




Indians on the trail 




San Jose's feminine bathers, chiefly clad in blankets, confine their activities 
to pouring water on each other with a basin 



INTO GUATEMALA 263 

American there was entirely too much of this 
particular breed of liquified society. He was 
connected with the railroad, and was typical of the 
"tropical tramps" whom too much ''white eye," 
as the Guatemalan variety of alcoholic beverage 
is called, was hurrying down the road that leads 
to utter incompetency. 

" Some day I '11 be appreciated, " he was wont to 
assert about third drink time in the morning. 
"I 've put in six years learning all about Central 
America, and now it 's simply a matter of going up 
to New Orleans and placing my services at the 
disposal of an exporter. I could save 'em thou- 
sands, and double business in Guatemala, for I 
know the ropes. Only they '11 have to pay me 
what I ask." 

He was working for $60 a month, and suffered 
from intermittent fever, a bad liver, and the cumu- 
lative effects of much alcohol, one of which 
imdoubtedly will end his earthly troubles long 
before any discriminating exporter recognises his 
peculiar worth. 

The hospitality of the American consular agent 
was a welcome addition to the drab weeks we later 
sojourned in San Jose. He had a breezy upper 



264 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

balcony, a huge rope hammock made in Corinto, 
some things to drink, and a clothes-basket full of 
phonograph records of the vintage of 1900, which 
were played upon a rusted instrument. As the 
heat had warped the records, the resulting "music** 
was a bit grotesque. 

Our initial breakfast at San Jose cost ten dollars 
a plate. Exorbitant? No, not at all, although 
it must be confessed that until one gets accustomed 
to the huge proportions of the bills when reckoned 
in native money, they are staggering. For in- 
stance, a bottle of beer (atrocious Guatemalan 
beer) costs e"ght dollars a bottle. The price of 
a shave is one dollar. Hotels that charge less 
than twenty dollars a day are few and far between. 

Guatemalan currency, you see, is slightly 
depreciated. During our visit the current rate 
of exchange was about eighteen to one, so that a 
native dollar's value in our money was approxi- 
mately five-and-a-half cents. However, the ex- 
change rate fluctuates violently, and 't is whispered 
moves up and down the scale very much as dictated 
by the financial ring which is hand in glove with 
the government. But even when the rate is pre- 
sumably normal and steady, it is remarkable 



INTO GUATEMALA 265 

how the price of money differs dependent upon 
whether one is buying or selHng; if a buyer, the 
exchange suddenly is low, but if you are leaving 
and desire to get rid of a wallet full of the big 
notes (many with the dimensions of an ordinary 
letterhead) you discover that just then Guate- 
malan money is as cheap as it is dirty. 

Be that as it may, it truly requires a lightning 
calculator to keep tab when one handles native 
money, American gold, and the shinplasters of 
neighbouring republics all at the same time. Of 
course, the stranger gets "stuck" at every financial 
encounter, but after all it matters little enough, 
for all expenses in Guatemala are delightfully low. 
That there is profit from the money changers* 
standpoint is indicated by their great number in 
the cities, for every block boasts at least a couple 
of signs announcing a Gambia de Moneda. 

Leaving San Jose shortly after nine in the morn- 
ing one reaches Guatemala City at six in the even- 
ing, the distance being seventy-five miles. The 
train stops everywhere, and for as long as it 
pleases, but the service is passably fair and far 
better than that encountered on the west slope of 
Costa Rica. 



266 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

A couple of hours of the long day of travel are 
devoted to a ''lay over" at Esquintla, where we 
breakfasted, viewed a .picturesque church and 
market, and renewed an acquaintance. 

A noonday breakfast at the Hotel Metropole, 
like some kinds of pills, should be taken as quickly 
as possible. There was an abundance of splendid 
fruit — almost a rare occurrence on a southern 
table — tortillas, frijoles negros, and even chicken. 
There were also a fowl or two on the floor beneath 
the dining table; but who so finicky as to object 
to that ! The maids were dark of skin and bare of 
foot, and wore their slick black hair in two braids 
down their backs, each braid interwoven with 
soiled pink ribbon or bunting and tied with a bow 
at the end. 

The "old acquaintance" incident needs a word 
of introduction. On the steamer between Balboa 
and Puntarenas, one of our travelling companions 
had been a French ''count." At least, he gave 
every one to understand that he was a count, and 
certainly he lived up to the part admirably. He 
dressed foppishly; as one fellow expressed it, he 
"wore everything but the galley stove." His 
monocled eye was supercilious, he was always com- 



INTO GUATEMALA 267 

plaining about the poor service, and generally mak- 
ing a nmsance of himself. It was understood that 
he had "extensive interests in Guatemala." It 
must be admitted that the ''count " was impressive 
and really made something of a stir in the circles 
of ship gossip. 

During our nooning at Esquintla we met the 
" count '* again. It was something of a revelation, 
not to mention a humiliation, so far as he was con- 
cerned. For the ''count " was tending bar ! Yea, 
verily, the alleged scion of a noble race was mixing 
drinks, and mixing them with a skill that bespoke 
previous experience. 

I sought information from an American jiwgz/er^?. 

" Oh, that? " said he. "Why, he 's an old hand 
here. Been bumming around Guatemala for 
years. Every time he gets ahead of the game he 
goes off somewhere and throws a bluff at being a 
real high roller. Seems to like it. " 

I admit experiencing an unholy relish in patron- 
ising that bar and having the "count" wait upon 
me, just for "auld lang syne" and the memory of 
his abominable rudeness on board ship. He never 
batted an eye. 

On the train later Fate administered another 



268 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

setback to a fellow-traveller. This one was a very 
obnoxious English dnimmer, a typical mannerless 
third-rater, a mixture of ignorant asininity and 
brazen hoggishness. 

On the train from Esquintla the drummer was 
first on board and immediately appropriated a 
double seat on the shady side, where he sprawled 
luxuriously with his bags pyramided around him, 
while some of the rest of us, including ladies, were 
jammed hotly into single seats in the sun. But 
pride went before a fall, and in this instance the 
fall took the form (a very buxom form it was, too !) 
of a massive Indian woman bearing a nursing 
child and followed by two more. Every other 
seat being occupied she planted herself beside the 
irate Britisher, and forthwith gave a breakfast, 
au natural, to the howling infant, while a very 
tangible odour of things in general and Indian in 
particular radiated in all directions from the 
immediate vicinity. Eventually the drummer 
evacuated his position, a sadder and a wiser man. 

Later in the journey some well-to-do natives 
bought fish to take to their city home. The fish 
were little fellows called mojara caught in Lake 
Amatitlan, and vended strung on strong grass. 



INTO GUATEMALA 269 

The purchasers carried them in their laps, entirely 
oblivious of the fact that there were other strong 
characteristics connected with the fish beside the 
grass, and that fishiness pervaded the entire car, 
not to mention their clothes. At another time the 
Indian lady who happened to share my seat gave 
what I choose to term a "southern exposure"; 
she was returning from a fiesta, and naturally 
wished to be economical with her best waist, so 
she tmconcemedly took it off and donned the 
everyday one in its place. When I add that the 
waist was her only upper garment, the aptness of 
the "exposure" appellation and the probability 
of my embarrassment will be understood. 

Which instances hint that in Guatemalan travel 
one must be prepared to take things as they come. 




CHAPTER XIV 

Tropic Land 

HE train started with a bump, and 
it continued to bump. 

"Don't you know," remarked 
our travelling companion, a delight- 
ful Britisher, "I really believe the bally engineer 
has his wife on board and means to shake her up 
a bit." 

"You mean he has his wives on board and wants 
to shake them,'' was the prompt amendment 
offered to his remark and accepted. 

In the seventy -five miles the road climbs some 
five thousand feet, the rise commencing perhaps 
fifteen miles inland, for the tier r a caliente, or hot 
coastal plain, is practically level. Then the actual 
climb begins, and a picturesque one it is, after pass- 
ing Santa Maria, the junction point of the "Pan- 
American" railroad which branches off thence 

northward to Champerico, continuing to an ulti- 

270 



TROPIC LAND 271 



mate connection with the Tehuantepec railroad in 
southern Mexico. 

It is possible to take this rail route all the way 
to *'the States" if desired, although the service 
supplied by the weekly schedule is not recom- 
mended either for speed or comfort. Plans for 
the construction of the ''Pan-American" all the 
way to Panama have been in a somewhat hazy 
existence for several years, and some day possibly 
will materialise, although the profits of such an 
undertaking seem rather more than chimerical 
when one considers that on either hand the rail 
route will have direct water competition, while 
after all the traffic that can be expected is almost 
infinitesimal. Also, one is led to believe that no 
great enthusiasm greets the proposal to link up 
the republics too closely; their boundaries have 
served as barriers before, and a certain sort of 
patriotic caution has no desire to see these barriers 
weakened. 

The scenery on the Limon-San Jose trip in 
Costa Rica is spectacular and abrupt. The Guate- 
malan journey from sea to capital more than makes 
up in the broad expansiveness of its shifting 
panoramas what it lacks in tropical verdure and 



272 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

almost chaotic impressiveness. On the long climb 
the road zigzags interminably, crawling like a 
snake from one imagined contour line to another, 
and gradually hauling itself by sheer determination 
from the moist regions of the tierra caliente into 
the zone of the tierra templada, or the temperate 
district, while behind spreads out a magnificent 
vista of coastal plains, green, hot, flat, and infinitely 
rich, extending into hazy mists on either hand, 
its western boundary the Pacific, a broad band 
of burnished gold as the afternoon sim lowered 
over it. 

Behind us lay the true Tropics — the torrid low- 
lands, where anything and everything will grow 
incredibly. 

It is banana land (although the commercial 
production of bananas is now restricted to the 
eastern slope) and no better idea of the startling 
productiveness of soil and climate can be had than 
is given by this quotation of a paragraph written 
by Nevin O. Winter: ''A prominent naturalist 
has made a record of the growth [of a banana 
shoot] during the first few hours. . . . Twenty 
minutes after the stalk was cut the new shoot could 
be seen pushing up from the centre of the cut. 



TROPIC LAND 2-]-^ 



Eight hours after cutting the shoot was nearly 
two feet in height, with the leaves forming. 
Thirty-one hours after cutting there were four 
well-developed and perfect leaves and the new 
shoot constituted quite a respectable looking tree. 
This great rapidity of growth is due to the spirally 
wrapped leaves that are contained within the 
banana stalk, and which are merely pushed upward 
and unroll. It is a fact that under these circum- 
stances the growth is so rapid that it is almost dis- 
cernible to the eye. " Small wonder that the trail 
cut by a machete through the jungle is swallowed 
up within a fortnight ! 

Guatemala — which was spelled ''Quahtemala" 
in the days of Cortez — is derived from an Indian 
word meaning the ''land of trees." And well it 
deserves its title, for trees of countless kinds thrive 
throughout the varied zones of its many altitudes, 
as, in fact, does every conceivable growing thing. 

It is said, for instance, that in the jungles there 
are more varieties of palms alone than of all the 
arboreal species of New England, ranging from the 
stately royal palm to diminutive palmlets that 
bear unpleasantly sharp spines and pleasantly 
tasting nuts. Best known of all the palms is the 



274 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

cocoanut, whose fruit and trunk supply nearly 
every ingredient necessary for a contented tropical 
existence: house building material, food, drink, 
medicine, utensils, and even clothing. 

The number of different species of wood has been 
placed in excess of four hundred. Among the 
more notable trees, both from the point of size 
and commercial value, are the mahogany, rosewood, 
iron wood, sapodilla, logwood, cedar, fig, and other 
dyewoods, mango, rubber, and a score of others. 
The interstices between the larger trunks — if there 
are any breathing spaces at all! — are crowded 
thick with bamboo shoots, while the entire jungle 
mass is twined together with a tenacious growth 
of vines, among which may be numbered the 
matapolo and sarsaparilla. Overhead are more 
vines with air roots, adding another barrier to the 
sunlight, while here and there orchid blossoms 
draped along the branches give a touch of gaiety 
to the unbroken greenery. 

And as this land is a veritable botanical garden 
it is also an unhoused natural museum, for birds, 
butterflies, insects, and four-footed animals of 
every description thrive as luxuriously as do the 
growing things. There are bright -hued birds 



TROPIC LAND 275 



galore, from the parrot and macaw to the quetzal, 
a gorgeous chromatic creation daubed riotously 
by nature with indigo, green, and scarlet, and with 
tail feathers a couple of feet in length, all going 
to make up a gay picture that figures prominently 
in the national emblem, chiefly, one is told, be- 
cause the bird itself cannot survive captivity, 
a characteristic supposedly of national application. 

Monkeys — spider, white-faced, mona, and howl- 
ing — abound, and are used both for food and pets, 
in neither of which capacities, it seemed to me, 
filling any long felt want. Tapirs, jaguars, wild 
hogs, red deer, and sloth are among the larger 
beasts; occasional alligators, snakes, iguana — an 
unlovely member of the lizard family — spiders, 
scorpions, centipedes, and a multitude of lesser 
animals are numerous. But despite the variety 
and the great number of beasts of one kind and 
another in the jungles, it is seldom that any are 
encountered in the ordinary paths of travel, and 
so far as insects are concerned, the stranger who 
wanders even far from the beaten tracks finds 
little or nothing that is notably disagreeable. 

The products of the soil of commercial value are 
many, and, at one altitude or another, include 



276 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

about everything that the earth produces in any 
latitude. 

Chief among them, from an economic standpoint, 
is coffee, whose production occurs in all three 
climatic belts, some of the best of it being grown 
on the beautiful haciendas in the tierra fria, the 
"cold region," although the vast majority of the 
acreage is confined within the 2500 and 4500 feet 
contours. Coffee is Guatemala's valuable export, 
and most of it goes to Europe from the western 
ports and via the Tehuantepec Isthmus, for the 
United States is fed almost entirely upon the far 
inferior — and less expensive — beans grown in 
Brazil. The high grade coffee of Guatemala and 
Salvador crosses the Atlantic to Hamburg; pre- 
sumably German, English, and French "sufferers'* 
from the "coffee habit" know good coffee when 
they taste it, and insist upon getting it. The 
production and handling of coffee was briefly 
described in a Salvadorian chapter, as was that of 
bananas, another Guatemalan product, as seen 
near Limon in Costa Rica. 

Cacao is rapidly coming into its own as a com- 
mercially profitable product, sugar is commercially 
important, mangoes thrive, and a multitude of 



TROPIC LAND 277 



lesser but delicious fruits are abundant, including 
such luscious delicacies as aguacate (alligator pears), 
breadfruit, and granadilla, the fruit of the passion 
flower. 

While coming a poor third in point of commercial 
value to coffee and bananas, the products of the 
cocoanut palms, and the trees themselves, are 
worthy of a passing paragraph. 

Of the 3,140,000 acres that it is estimated are 
producing cocoanut trees, some 255,000 are in 
Central America, about twice that amount in 
South America, and half as much in the West 
Indian Islands. Ceylon, British India, and the 
Eastern Archipelago contain the brunt of the 
balance. The value of the annual exportation of 
nuts and products from Central and South America 
is close to two million dollars. From the San 
Bias country in Panama alone six million nuts 
are shipped each year to New York, these being 
considered the finest in the world. 

The tree flourishes best near the equator, al- 
though on low coasts it gets comparatively far 
north, and in India occasionally is successfully 
raised at altitudes as high as four thousand feet. 
It has a cylindrical trunk, often as large as two 



278 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

feet in diameter, and in height ranging from sixty 
to one hundred feet. From the bottom upward 
are rings marking the places where old leaves grew, 
and it is said that the age of a tree may be approxi- 
mated by allowing twelve years to each ring. At 
the top is a glorious feather-duster arrangement 
of green leaves, perhaps twenty feet long, the 
base of the leaf stalk spreading and clasping the 
main stem or trunk, which is covered by a fibrous 
network like burlap. The flowers are arranged 
on a spadix some five feet long, and are a delicate 
white. After the flowers come the nuts, too fa- 
miliar to require description. Each spike of the 
flowers yields from ten to fifteen nuts. A healthy 
tree under forty years old can be counted on for 
150 nuts annually, and 250 is not an extraordinary 
figure. 

The principal products are the nuts, dried and 
raw; copra, which is the dried kernel, and makes a 
valuable oil; poonac, sl residue left after the oil is 
pressed out, used to fatten cattle; coir, sl fibre 
from the woody husk, and a number of bi-products, 
ranging from medicinal extracts and building 
materials to yam, mats, and half a hundred lesser 
articles. 



TROPIC LAND 279 



With the rich lowlands behind, the train dragged 
upward through the foothills, which were rounded 
and thrown one upon the other and all covered 
with tousled low greenery, from which emerged the 
stately tapering trunks of royal palms, scattered 
here and there, infinitely graceful as their white 
shafts lifted high their crowning mass of green 
plumes. 

As we approached the serried peaks of the many 
mountains, imposing and beautiful as seen from' 
the coast, their fascination increased. Beside 
Agua, there were Tajumulco, Tacana, Fuego, 
Pacaya, Ipala, and Santa Maria, to the north, 
whose eruption in 1902 inflicted great loss of life 
and property damage to the city of Quezaltenango, 
practically wiping out all the surrounding fincas. 
All the peaks named are volcanic, as is all Guate- 
mala, a few of them are still ''warm" and may 
perhaps come to destructive life at any time, and 
all of them are more than 11,000 feet in height, 
which hints that in Guatemala it is possible 
for the lover of mountaineering to get his fill 
of adventure. 

Palin is a mid-afternoon station well up in the 
highlands, and there we had our first glimpse of 



280 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the prevalent type of Guatemalan Indian woman 
— there were men too, to be sure, but as it was a 
question of active vending at the train-side, and 
selling eatables means work, the men were in the 
shady background. 

These women are very small and very strong. 
Their feet are tiny and their legs wonderfully 
well developed and practically tireless. They 
carry everything but their numerous babies on 
their heads, and as a result are as straight as arrows. 
The babies are swung in slings, which pass over 
one shoulder and under the opposite arm, so that 
they can be shifted to a position at the back or 
brought around to the breast as occasion demands. 
The women are barefooted and bareheaded. 
Their garments are three in number. First there 
is the guipile, an upper garment that is fashioned 
somewhat like a poncho, being little more than a 
square of cloth through a slit in which the head is 
thrust so that the guipile hangs across the shoulders 
and down to the waist. Secondly, there is a 
skirt, which is nothing more than a blanket 
brought around so tightly that it might have been 
the model for the hobble skirt; however, the 
Guatemalan skirt is sc abbreviated that it inter- 




Indian woman vending dukes at Palin 




A Guatemalan Indian woman with the ever-present baby 



TROPIC LAND 2S1 



feres not at all with foot freeness. The rest of 
the costume consists of a broad band or scarf 
bound about the waist, which forms a sort of 
connecting link between skirt and guipile. Often 
enough it is a ''missing link," and then an un- 
abashed zone of brown skin peers out between 
the gaily coloured garments. The kiddies wear a 
miniature replica of the ''grown up" costume, 
always plus a delightfully pert little round cap 
about as big as a minute, that perches on their 
baby heads. 

A cotton shirt and trousers are the sum and 
substance of the male Indian attire, with occa- 
sional more picturesque embellishments. In the 
hot country the garb gets down to a minimum. 
So much so, in fact, that Rufino Barrios, former 
dictator, once issued a decree compelling natives 
to wear a sufficient amount of clothing to meet 
the requirements of delicacy before entering a 
city. And so it is that even to-day one encounters 
pedestrians halting by the wayside at the city 
limits and adding a touch or two to their scanty 
attire. And even at that an Anthony Comstock 
might have his sensibilities outraged ! Altogether 
these comic glimpses of roadside toilet-making 



282 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

remind one of similar scenes in eastern Canada of 
a Sabbath, when the French Canadian yoimgsters, 
who have paddled through the dust for miles in 
bare feet, stop to put on ''store shoes" before 
approaching the church; only the voyageurs of the 
Guatemalan roads go without for comfort's sake, 
while the habitants do so for economy. 

These Indians comprise nine tenths of Guate- 
mala's population, divided about equall}^ between 
full bloods and ladmos, the latter having some 
Spanish blood in their veins and an accompan3dng 
pride which causes them to look down upon the 
raciall}^ pure Indians. The other tenth is Creole, 
and in its hands lies practically all the wealth, 
power, and lands of the so-called republic. A 
middle class is notable for its absence, and it is 
this lack, no doubt, that gives Guatemala its 
peculiar and far from healthy political and eco- 
nomic character. 

From the standpoint of the picturesque the 
Indians are the ver}^ fibre of Guatemala. Of their 
social and political life a few words later on; here 
a paragraph or two concerning their appearance 
may be in place — for the memory of the ever-present 
brown men and women with their burdens is the 



TROPIC LAND 283 



most vivid mental picture retained by one who 
has travelled in Guatemala. 

The Indian is the carrier of the country — a very 
*' common" common carrier, too. A poor second 
to him come the mule and burro. 

They are called cargadors, and for a wage of a 
few cents a day will trot countless miles with a 
himdred pounds or more strapped to their backs 
or balanced on their heads. The cargadors are 
ever5rwhere; not a road or a trail in the land that 
is free from them, and not an evening but the 
traveller finds them squatting beside their tiny 
fires cooking coffee and the inevitable tortillas 
and frijoles in the earthenware utensils that form 
an important item in their variegated cargoes. 

In Salvador we had marvelled at the enormous 
burdens born by the poorer men and women, but 
in comparison with rural Guatemala, and espe- 
cially the Guatemalan highlands, Salvador's human 
transportation freaks are insignificant. 

A common method of carrying is by means of 
a wooden frame about two feet square and perhaps 
four feet high, which is strapped to the back and 
further supported by a band across the forehead, 
just as the ''tumpline" is used in the far North; 



284 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the frames are packed to capacity with every 
conceivable thing, and sometimes are bound 
around for protection with matting. One of the 
articles chiefly carried is pottery, and it is quite 
ordinary to meet a little man shuffling along be- 
neath a veritable pyramid of heavy earthenware 
pots, piled up perhaps five feet above his head and 
weighing all the way from one hundred to two 
hundred pounds. Behind him (as shown in an 
accompanying illustration) quite often trails a 
little boy, with a load proportionate to his years, 
and heavy enough at that, judging by the way 
the perspiration trickles down his grimy face and 
his eyes pop out under the strain of the galling 
"tumpline." 

The women carry about as much as the men. 
They do not use the framework, which is called 
a carcaste, but if their load is more than can be 
balanced on their heads in baskets, it is strapped on 
their backs in a rough rope netting. It is extra- 
ordinary to watch them get into harness. I have 
seen a little weazened woman, who looked sixty, — 
and probably was thirty, for youth goes quickly 
in a land where children come early in the 'teens 
and life is spent entirely on the highroad, — lie down 




s 

o 

XI W) 



-^ - a 



"^ O 




TROPIC LAND 285 



in a marketplace, wiggle her shoulders under the 
straps holding a great net of pottery, and then, 
with the ''tumpline" cutting into her forehead, 
struggle to her feet with a burden that weighed 
at least one hundred pounds, and probably more. 
And off she went, on a journey of perhaps a dozen 
miles. 

All the cargadors, male and female, go at a dog 
trot. There is no walking, but instead a swinging 
half -run, which eats up distance at a rate of some 
six miles an hour. 

As our train progressed into higher altitudes 
and brought us nearer to Guatemala City, we 
gained our first impressions of the country and its 
people, so prominent among the latter being the 
Indian burden-bearers. 

Even the brief glimpses from the train windows 
and at the numerous stops served as a trust- 
worthy introduction to another side of Guatemalan 
conditions — the political. For it was apparent 
that the country is militant. Everywhere there 
were soldiers. Comparatively few, to be sure, 
when considered by groups, but numerous in the 
aggregate, and amply indicative of the fact that 
stability is maintained by an iron hand. They 



286 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

are ill-clad little fellows, and ill-armed, these 
soldiers of Cabrera, but efficient for all that in 
their field. Like most Central American warriors 
their uniforms are of blue jeans; nearly all of them 
are barefoot, and most of them have at least one 
jaunty, if not a fear-inspiring, appurtenance to 
their military get-up in the shape of bright red 
trimmings to caps and coats. Their guns seem 
more valuable as antiques than anything else. 
Many of them have never discharged a weapon, 
which perhaps is as well for their own safety as 
for that of an enemy ! 

The officers who captained the groups of ragged 
soldiery along the railroad were piratical looking 
fellows, with ruffianly black beards and hard 
faces. However, the next strata of military 
officialdom is gaily plumed; the ''generals" we 
saw at several stations along the route were 
gorgeously bedecked with gold braid and finery. 
At La Pedrera, I remember, we watched two such 
officers meet ; the greeting of lovers long separated 
could not have been more affectionate. Arms 
about each other in a tight embrace they exchanged 
a smacking kiss upon the cheek. Altogether, it 
was quite impressive — and somewhat sickening for 





o 



TROPIC LAND 287 



an Anglo-Saxon, who inherits little patience for 
such procedure. However, they all do it, and 
the more gold braid the more "slushy" is the 
greeting, it seems. I snapped a photograph of 
two worthies in action, but did not manage to 
get it until after the kisses, when they were 
"breaking away," as a Yankee onlooker expressed 
it. 

Guatemala has many beautiful lakes nestling 
throughout its uplands, whose scenery in itself 
offers enough enjoyment to repay a long pilgrim- 
age. In the late afternoon the train brought us 
to Lake Amatitlan, along whose borders the track 
skirts after suddenly emerging from among the 
surrounding hills and out upon the shores, with 
their broad and wonderful vistas. 

Amatitlan lies at an altitude of nearly two 
thousand feet, is twelve miles long and about three 
miles wide, and is emptied into the Pacific Ocean 
by the river Guastoya. Hovering close above it 
are the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, while at 
the water's edge, close to the tracks, one may see 
women washing clothing in hot springs that boil 
up conveniently, leaving nothing to be desired 
but a rain of soap, as one writer remarks. There 



288 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

is a curious annual phenomenon about the lake 
which occurs generally in March, when there is 
an eruption at its bottom after which great 
quantities of sulphur rise to the surface and 
thousands of fish are destroyed. 

In south-western Guatemala is Lake Atitlan, 
the big brother of Amatitlan, situated at an alti- 
tude of five thousand feet in the heart of mountain 
fastnesses, ten miles wide and thirty miles in 
length. There are no known outlets to the lake, 
and despite scientific efforts to "plant" fish, none 
seem able to survive in its icy waters. The sur- 
roundings are described as fascinating from the 
standpoints of scenery and human and historic 
interest, and while reaching the lake is something 
of an undertaking, a trip to it is recommended for 
any one the length of whose Guatemalan visit 
will allow the excursion. 

On the train I talked with an American, the 
president of a large sugar machinery manufac- 
turing company. He was on his way to South 
America upon some business, and was looking 
over Guatemala in passing, for the Guatemalan 
sugar industry is rapidly becoming an important 
one. 




" On the shores of Lake Amatitlan one may see women washing clothes in 
hot springs that boil up conveniently " 




I snapped two worthies in action, but did not manage to get it until they 
were ' breaking away ' " 



TROPIC LAND 289 



"Give the devil his due," was his recommenda- 
tion in discussing local labour conditions and the 
iiniversal poverty. "Guatemalan labour is not 
half as badly off as it looks. See — the men are 
always laughing. There is no depression such as 
you see in almost all tropical countries, where the 
labourer is little more than a slave. All your 
Guatemalan worker wants is enough 'white eye' 
to cheer him up." 

Although not exactly a lofty viewpoint from 
which to consider the native mozo's condition, if 
one chooses to say that a laissez-faire policy is 
satisfactory, there is no doubt that the Guatemalan 
labourer's lot is about as happy as that of any 
other semi-barbarian of the Tropics, and perhaps 
happier. The key of the case is that he or she 
knows no other kind of life than that led, and 
knowing none is content with what Providence 
and the overlords provide. 

The American manufacturer opened up vehe- 
mently upon the inefficiency of our schools when 
it comes to teaching foreign languages, calling 
our instruction methods farcical. 

"Some weeks ago," he said, "we advertised for 
a salesman to work in Spanish countries. Of 



290 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

forty-three applicants, thirty-eight were useless 
simply because they could n't speak Spanish 
decently. Every one of them thought he could, 
having been 'educated' in our college 'language 
courses. ' Of the other five, four were n't com- 
petent salesmen. The fifth man got the job — he 
had learned to speak Spanish in Germany!''' 

The manufacturer had his son with him. He 
had taken the boy out of college — a large Eastern 
university — because no progress was being made 
in languages, so far as conversational ability was 
concerned, and in place of ''Spanish 6" or " French 
12B" at Harvard or Yale was planting him for a 
year in a South American city where his business 
colleagues handled the three languages indiscrim- 
inately and it would be a case of his conversa- 
tionally swimming or sinking. 

"Every German in tropical trade speaks French, 
English, and Spanish, and speaks it easily. They 
don't regard it as remarkable. What is the 
trouble? Is it that we Americans are naturally 
stupid and can't learn? Or are our teaching 
methods absurd?" 

It was n't difficult to discover that he blamed 
the methods, and not the pupils. And this man, 



TROPIC LAND 291 



who has for thirty years managed a large sales 
force of foreign -speaking Americans and English- 
speaking foreigners, should know something of 
what he was talking about. 




CHAPTER XV 

Guatemalan Glimpses 

N scenery ajtid climate Guatemala is 
a pure delight. Politically and 
socially, it is a land of extraordinary 
contradictions. 
On one hand stands a most liberal constitution, 
an enlightened code of laws, free speech, free press, 
an active congress, and a progressive educational 
system. There is luxury, wealth, and comfort. 
It is all quite idyllic. 

But how different is the reverse side of the 
picture! The constitution is a farce, the laws 
are a travesty, free speech and free press are 
subject to the autocratic whims of the administra- 
tion, the congress is no better — nay, worse — than 
so many manikins, and the vaunted educa- 
tional system is a giddy burlesque. The luxury 
is ephemeral, the wealth is mortgaged. Rub the 
gilt off, and Guatemala, at close range, is a sad 

sight — the saddest on our hemisphere, for the 

292 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 293 

heritage God gave the land is bountiful beyond 
belief. 

You may see whichever side of the picture you 
choose. No — not quite that, for if you merit 
official attention you will certainly be shown the 
bright side, while the dark will be disclosed only 
through your own efforts. But the latter is 
easily discovered. 

We had a preliminary glimpse of the dark side 
down at San Jose. Among our fellow guests at 
the Play a Hotel were an old man and his family, 
consisting of his wife and three daughters. Pre- 
sumably they were on a holiday, vacationing at 
the beach. Only they were anything but vaca- 
tioners in appearance, for there never was a more 
sepulchral looking lot; they might have been 
mourners. Furthermore, they were surrounded 
by a baffling air of mystery, for no one seemed 
disposed to vouchsafe any information concerning 
them. 

Finally, an American told the old man*s story: 
He had just been released from prison after a four- 
years confinement, and now, with his family, was 
enjoying his first week of freedom — an "enjoy- 
ment" dismally tempered by fear and the certain 



294 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

knowledge that every act was watched and probably 
every word reported by spies. On April 29, 1907, 
President Cabrera was driving; his carriage 
stopped; a bomb exploded beneath it. Only the 
driver had failed to place his charge exactly at the 
intended spot, and instead of the vehicle and 
Cabrera being blown into eternity the bomb ex- 
ploded under the horse, killing it and the driver, 
and partially wrecking the carriage, from which 
the dictator emerged unscathed. In a coat 
pocket of the dead coachman, among other papers, 
was found a check for an inconsiderable amount 
endorsed by the old man whom we saw at San 
Jose. That was enough. On that "evidence" 
he was thrown into prison and remained there 
for four years. We were told that there was no 
trial and that the culprit showed the check had no 
possible connection with the crime. 

"But then," as a good Guatemalan explained, 
"he was lucky to get off as easily as he did." 

The freed prisoner was not allowed to leave the 
country. Indeed, few who have felt the iron hand 
of the dictator are permitted to become emigrados, 
for then sympathy might be stirred up abroad 
and unfortunate aftermaths result. While there 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 295 

was a steamer in the offing, even the daughters 
were not permitted to accept an invitation to sail 
about in a launch. 

In Guatemala City we tramped around exten- 
sively ; I used my notebook and camera and made 
no pretence of masking my interest in the people 
and the places, and in my room I was usually 
busy with my portable typewriter. 

"Of course you know you are being watched?** 
an American asked me. 

I laughed. It seemed improbable, for aside 
from the fact that every one has to give his name 
to a soldier or a very plain ''plain clothes" man 
at the railroad depots, there is little evidence of 
surveillance, and no difficulty whatever, so far 
as foreigners are concerned. 

But one afternoon I returned with unexpected 
suddenness to our room at the Gran Hotel to get 
a forgotten roll of films. The windows faced a 
narrow roof above the interior courtyard. As I 
opened the door a ragged fellow had the sash of 
one of these windows up and with one foot across 
the sill was intently examining the typewriter and 
the pile of papers beside it. Seeing me almost 
immediately he beat a retreat so speedily that 



296 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

before I could get around to the court he had com- 
pletely vanished. It was inside the hotel, and I 
knew the chance was slim that the interloper was 
a thief, for an outsider would have found it hard 
to get there, and still more difficult to quietly 
melt away. I called the proprietor and demanded 
an explanation. Of course, nothing came of it 
other than that he was fittingly grieved and 
shocked and apologetic, in broken English, and 
to prove his position summoned all the mozos 
connected with the establishment who might have 
been prowling around. None of them was my 
man. 

Telephones are barred so far as long distance 
use is concerned, because it is not always possible 
to keep track of 'phoned conversations, especially 
if varied languages are employed. I was told by 
an authority (an American business man who sends 
scores of messages weekly) that every telegram 
of any possible importance, and every cable, is 
read and recorded by an official. Code messages 
are not encouraged, and if one tries them per- 
sistently they are apt to be delayed unaccountably. 

Those are hints of what goes on beneath the 
surface. 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 297 

The other side — the official side — is admirably 
illustrated by the stately Manuel Estrada Cabrera 
Temple of Minerva at the Hippodrome. It is an 
impressive structure of classic design, and, at 
least on superficial observation, is a striking tribute 
to a high order of artistic appreciation and pro- 
gressive national expenditure. Every year there 
are elaborate festival entertainments focusing 
around this majestic temple which is so extra- 
ordinarily out of keeping with its environment, 
when the school children of the capital parade and 
perform, all accompanied by a vast deal of pretty 
show and pomp, a vast deal of oratory about edu- 
cation and progress, and a vast deal of applause by 
every one for the great benefactor Cabrera. The 
administration foots the bills. That is the annual 
high water mark of ''progress and education." 

There are other temples of Minerva, of lesser 
magnitude, here and there throughout the country. 
They are striking — by contrast with their environ- 
ment, at the least — but aside from standing as 
monuments to the everlasting glory of their creator 
Cabrera, they seem worthless extravagances — • 
extravagance in a land where civilisation has slowly 
slipped backward for the last half -century. 



298 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

The schools are the boast of the government 
and are the one great ''play'' when officialdom 
desires to impress visitors with the tender regard 
the administration entertains for its constituency. 
There is, or was, the Manuel Estrada Cabrera 
Normal School and the Manuel Estrada Cabrera 
Industrial School. It is not possible to speak 
with authority, because opportunity to get first- 
hand information is scant, but from what we could 
see and learn the educational system exists chiefly 
on paper. For instance, one great building — it is 
to be the Manuel Estrada Cabrera something-or- 
other — is half completed. It has been under 
construction for years; a fortune has been spent 
upon it, in a haphazard way; apparently it never 
will be finished, and even if it should be there is 
no tangible clue as to what can be done with it 
or whence would come the pupils to enjoy its 
proposed advantages. Nobody cares; and, of 
course, no one asks questions or ventures opinions. 

Few, if any, know how many soldiers Guatemala 
has, and probably even the dictator himself has 
no exact knowledge on this head. Suffice to say 
that squads of the dusky, blue-jeaned, barefoot 
little fellows are for ever parading the streets, 




^ (U 







GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 299 

that bugle calls resound, and that sentries sprout 
on every other comer of the capital. Next to 
parading, the chief duty of the military seems to 
be guarding prisoners; one constantly encounters 
groups of half a dozen soldiers guarding one poor 
devil of a half -starved ragamuffin, who works 
upon the roads while his captors surroimd him. 

Cabrera is never seen. It is said that for at 
least two years he has not appeared upon the 
streets, excepting only the time when Secretary 
Knox was an official visitor. Of that visit in the 
summer of 19 12, William Bayard Hale, who 
accompanied the diplomatic party, writes: 

''Guatemala is the giant among the republics 
of the Central Continent. It has long been the 
ambition of her rulers to swallow up the others — 
the five nations were one previous to 1838. A 
junta, ambitious to reunite them, maintains an 
active campaign from Guatemala City. El Sal- 
vador, Honduras, and Nicaragua were united 
under Policarpo Bonilla, 1895- 1898, but Guatemala 
has not yet had the strength to assert her purpose. 
Manuel Estrada Cabrera seated himself in the 
presidency of Guatemala in 1898, the year that 
General Regaldo of Salvador broke up Policarpo 



300 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Bonilla's Union. Estrada Cabrera has been for 
fourteen years building up the most absolute 
dictatorship ever accomplished on this continent 
(except by Diaz in Mexico), with the ultimate 
purpose ever in his mind of making one empire 
of Central America. 

"I have broken bread and drunk wine and 
talked philosophy with Estrada Cabrera, and I 
would rather speak of his devotion to education 
(which is fervent, if his eloquence convinces you) 
and his taste in art (which is severely classical) 
than of the methods by which he wields absolute 
sway over his million subjects — three quarters 
of them Indian or half-caste like himself. Twice 
they have come near murdering him: once a bomb 
blew up the street just ahead of his carriage; once 
a body of his own cadets opened fire on him in the 
palace. Awful is Guatemala vengeance. Estrada 
Cabrera had not left his palace except by an 
underground passage to a neighbouring house for 
many months before Mr. Knox visited his capital. 
Then he was seen in several places, closely guarded ; 
among other places, at the American Legation, 
where he attended dinner. But when the hour 
of departure came, the President's state carriage 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 301 

with its jingling horses and its cavalry escort 
rolled away — empty — and two minutes later the 
President came out quickly, jumped into a di- 
lapidated hack, and went home by a side street." 

Carriages are not permitted to pass through the 
streets upon which the palace faces. As for getting 
a personal interview, I was told by the United 
States officials that to arrange such would be next 
to impossible. Apparently the last writer the 
President granted a presentation, Frederick Pal- 
mer, had the hardihood to see that he was sup- 
posed not to have seen and subsequently to have 
written the unvarnished truth. The experience 
had permanently soured Cabrera. While I was 
unable to get a first-hand glimpse of the dictator 
himself, the following admirable word-picture 
from the pen of Mr. Hale in a World's Work 
article presents him as he was described to me by 
those who knew him well : 

"He looks like Diaz of Mexico, except that his 
expression is livelier. His figure is sturdy, his 
head large, with a high forehead; he has a double 
chin and a heavy iron-grey moustache. In repose 
his face is not unamiable, but all manner of storms, 
volcanoes, and lightnings dwell in his half-shut 



302 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



eyes. No human face that I have ever seen com- 
pares with Estrada Cabrera's — tmless Mr. Roose- 
velt's — in capability of passionate play, of swift 
intensity. In an instant it is transformed with 
truly terrific energy, the eyes darting commands 
and hurling threats. His people stand about him 
watching for any slightest gesture of the finger, 
any premonitory suggestion of a lifting eyelid. 
Time and again we saw him control all the details 
of elaborate functions with scarcely perceptible 
glances and movements of the hand. People 
came and went, rose up and sat down, were pleased 
or were indifferent, as he indicated; at the least 
tardiness or failure to imderstand, rage fairly 
transfixed his coimtenance for a dreadful second." 

Everything in Guatemala is conducted on the 
spoils system, only as there is but one party, and 
that party is always in power, naturally it is not 
a matter of competing for the jobs and the spoils, 
but rather of keeping the "graft " upon a profitable 
business basis. "A political job in the hand is 
worth a dozen honest ones," is a local adaptation 
not inappropriate. 

Salaries are absurd. The President is allowed 
$5000 a month, Guatemalan money, or about one 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 303 

eighteenth of that amount in our currency. The 
jefe politico is the political mainspring of the 
country. There are twenty- three of them, at 
the head of each of the departments into which 
Guatemala is divided, over which they are gover- 
nors — ''political heads," literally. Below them 
are the alcaldes, or mayors of the local munici- 
palities. The salary of a jefe politico is supposed 
to be $250 a month, Guatemalan money, 

"What salary does a judge receive?" I once 
asked. 

*'As much as he can get," was the prompt 
answer. 

And so with the jefes. They get what they can 
— and that usually is a tidy little sum, if reports 
are to be credited. For instance, they are the 
clearing houses for labour. When a finquero 
wants labourers he does not go out and get them, 
for the very good and sufficient reason that there, 
are none to be had that way. Instead, he goes 
to his jefe, or perhaps to the alcalde, and states 
his needs, which are forthwith provided — for a 
consideration. The usual price for day labour is 
three pesos, or about seventeen cents. (In remote 
districts it is as low as one peso,) Half of this goes 



304 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



to the jefe. It is said that each SiCtivejefe controls 
1200 labourers, so it is evident that a profitable 
field of endeavour lies in this direction. 

The labourers themselves are between the devil 
and the deep sea. As long as they stay on afinca, 
they are safe and may depend with some certainty 
upon receiving the necessities and some of the 
joys of life. However, once they leave, they are 
at the mercy of the authorities and probably face 
an alternative of being impressed into the payless 
army or of having themselves again turned over 
to another master, while the jefe retains the com- 
mission for the transaction. 

While it is said that peonage no longer exists 
in Guatemala, it actually does, to all intents and 
purposes. The keynote of the system is that a 
labourer may not leave a plantation if he is in 
debt to his employer — which he invariably is. 
For instance, along comes a marriage, a funeral, 
or something that requires special celebration; 
if nothing better turns up, there are always the 
numberless church and national holidays and 
Jiesta times. Straightway the mozo borrows 
money from his master. After that, he is never 
out of debt, if for no other reason than that the 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 305 

employer keeps the accounts and has the pur- 
chased backing of the local jefe or alcalde. As a 
matter of fact, the labourer is content ; he is better 
off steadily employed, is far less liable to get into 
serious trouble than if rambling at his own free 
will, and above all has a real sense of affiliation 
with the estate where he works, which becomes 
his protected home. The permanency of the 
system is indicated by the fact that a man's off- 
spring and relatives inherit his debt should he die. 

Here is the general text of a contract often 
signed by employees, wherein they bind them- 
selves: 

"i. To discharge with his work daily and 
personally the debt contracted on his finca. 

" 2 . To do every class of work after the customs 
established on the finca, 

"3. To absent himself from the finca on no 
pretext without previous permission in writing. 

'*4. To pay all expenses made necessary in 
case of flight, and rendering himself subject to 
the proceedings brought against him through the 
proper authority. 

**5. To remain on the finca eleven months of 
each year. 



306 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

"6. To subject himself to all articles of the 
law of labourers decreed by the government. 
(Which means that he must remain so long as 
the finquero says he is in debt.) 

"7. The loan is given not to the man, but to 
his entire family; and each and every one will be 
individually responsible for what they receive. 

" 8 . The mozo who becomes security for another 
mozo (be it man or woman) assumes the same 
responsibilities as the one who receives the loan." 

The most ludicrous (or is it the most pathetic?) 
of the sidelights upon Guatemalan democracy 
concerns the presidential "election." The con- 
stitution calls for one every four years. A con- 
stitution must be respected, especially if it happens 
to be a really admirable one. So every four years 
there is an election. Manuel Estrada Cabrera 
became President in 1898, and he has been re- 
elected regularly at lawful intervals since. The 
method is simplicity itself. In the first place, it 
it a "real election"; ballots actually are cast and 
probably a great many of them are counted; 
indeed, the official "count" of a recent election ex- 
ceeded in number the total estimated population of 
the entire country ! Then the result is announced : 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 307 

after the last election the delighted and doubtless 
surprised patriot, again returned to office by an 
admiring constituency, forthwith proclaimed the 
fact in cablegrams to all the governments of the 
two continents. One of the features of the elec- 
tion is that crowds of Indians are marched by 
soldiers from one polling place to another, all of 
whom loyally cast their ballots for Cabrera. One 
reason — beside the soldiers — is that he is the only 
candidate ! 

A little less than a century ago Guatemala was 
the capital country of all Central America. To- 
day it is the dominating factor in the international 
political life of the isthmian lands, and it is com- 
mon knowledge that so far as Cabrera's own 
desires are concerned, could they be put into 
execution, Guatemala would again stand at the 
head of a federation. 

Spain held domain over Central America from 
1524 until 182 1, and Guatemala was the central 
scene of the Spanish rule. From the first named 
date — that which marked the initial Spanish 
conquests in the New World — -until September of 
18 10 the rule of Spain was practically undisputed, 
for while on one side there was abuse of power and 



308 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

on the other resulting resentment, nothing even 
approaching a systematic attempt to gain inde- 
pendence occurred during the three centuries when 
all this territory was as completely dominated by 
the Spanish Cortes and the Spanish crown as was 
any province of the then great monarchy. 

It was in 1810 that Mexico first threw off the 
Spanish yoke, under the leadership of the patriot- 
priest Hidalgo, and thereafter the seeds of rebel- 
lion, long sown, sprouted and came to a head with 
rapidity. The following year, 181 1, saw real 
rebellion, whose blossoming was preceded by 
pronunciamentos and followed by bloodshed and 
misery. That second decade of the last century 
was a sad one for Guatemala's patriots, though 
its tragedies were tempered by the slow successes 
of the movement whose ultimate result was the 
governmental divorce of Central America from 
the mother country, the latter by then a land 
impoverished physically and politically as the re- 
sults of the Napoleonic cataclysms and the wave 
of rebellion that was sweeping broadcast and 
tearing the children colonies of the old-world 
monarchies from their parents. 

Spain's struggle to retain her rights in Guate- 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 309 

mala were feeble, and finally, on the 14th of 
September, 1821, Senor Gavino Gainza, repre- 
sentative of the Crown, having cast his lot with 
the rebellion, a great meeting was held in Guate- 
mala City and an Acta de Independencia adopted. 
In March of the following year a junta was formed 
and a nominally republican government launched. 
In the same year, 1822, El Salvador, Honduras, 
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica also declared their in- 
dependence "for better or for worse"; for the first 
and the last named the change was for the better, 
and ever since has remained so; for the others, 
*' independence" ushered in a century of poli- 
tical misery, wherein the harsh hand of Spanish 
rule was supplanted by a succession of harsher 
domestic tyrannies, some of them operating under 
the name of democracy and others seeking no 
apology for their baneful existence. 

About a year later a union with Mexico was 
effected and remained in force for some fifteen 
months. The next experiment in international 
relationship was a union of the Central American 
countries which resulted in little but chaos, from 
the midst of which emerged Francisco Morazan, 
who became President of the federation in 1830. 



310 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Two years later, after countless minor revolts 
and an incessant struggle chiefly centring about 
the clergy and complicated by endless local jeal- 
ousies, the federation practically dissolved. In 
1837 Morazan abandoned Guatemala and finally 
met death in an unsuccessful revolutionary at- 
tempt in Costa Rica. 

Rafael Carrera was the next dictator of Guate- 
mala, and a vicious, iron-handed one he proved 
himself until death terminated his ''presidential 
term" in 1865. Next came a colourless leader 
named Vicente Cema, who was ousted by Granados, 
the latter being more or less regularly succeeded 
by J. Rufino Barrios in 1872. Barrios, although 
a dictator in every sense of the word, did much for 
Guatemala, encouraging development and educa- 
tion. He was a bitter enemy of the church and 
ruthlessly confiscated its properties and destroyed 
its powers, so far as he was able. His great ambi- 
tion was the establishment of a Central American 
union, with Guatemala at its head. The scheme 
accomplished nothing but bloodshed. When Bar- 
rios invaded Salvador to compel it to join the 
proposed union, he was shot and killed in an en- 
gagement, and with him died all hope of the union. 



GUA TEMALAN GLIMPSES 3 1 1 

Manuel Lisandro Barillas withdrew after a 
brief presidential experience and was followed by 
Jos6 Maria Reina Barrios, a nephew of Rufino 
Barrios. In February, 1898, he was assassinated 
on the streets of Guatemala City, and forthwith 
was succeeded by Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who 
was the premier designado, or vice-president. 

Since then Cabrera has held almost undisputed 
sway. Excepting only the several occasions upon 
which his people have narrowly missed assas- 
sinating him, his position has never been seriously 
assailed, despite minor revolutionary attempts. 

"Cabrera can never be put out. He has 
Guatemala in the palm of his hand. There is no 
power in the land that could seriously menace him." 

Such is the opinion of a dozen men in Guatemala 
to-day, who know whereof they speak. 

One of three things alone can end his rule. The 
first is death ; it may come at any time. Secondly, 
Cabrera, following the example of Castro or 
Zelaya, may resign his position and decamp to 
Europe; that course holds at least a promise of 
some peaceful enjoyment of the fortune he has 
squeezed from his country. Or, thirdly, another 
nation may see to it that his rule ends. Such action 



312 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

can never originate from a Central American 
neighbour, for no one of them is powerful enough. 
Apparently no European power can oust Cabrera, 
even if it would, thanks to the threadbare Monroe 
Doctrine which forbids interference from across 
the seas. 

Is it possible, then, that the United States will 
some day grasp the great Cabrera by the seat 
of his official trousers and cast him forth? It is 
doubtful. Assuredly that time will never come 
until we accept far more fully than we ever yet 
have done the responsibilities of the protecting 
doctrine we have so tenderly wrapped aroimd our 
little brothers of the southland. In Guatemala 
it is said — and the assertion holds water — that if 
our government does not actually stand directly 
behind Cabrera it certainly seems to do so. There 
can be no doubt that very recently revolutionary 
movements directed against neighbouring republics 
have been hatched in Guatemala, fathered by 
Cabrera, and that our officials knew of them and 
took no action to stamp them out. Nor is it a mat- 
ter of doubt that if ever a promising revolt against 
Cabrera himself should spring to life the United 
States promptly would see that it was crushed. 



GUATEMALAN GLIMPSES 313 

"So what can we do? We are helpless. Your 
great republic is the strongest support Cabrera 
has," said a wealthy Guatemalan, who hates the 
dictator heartily. 

And Heaven only knows what will happen when 
Cabrera goes, no matter how he goes. Guatemala 
will be a chaos, for it seems fair to believe that in 
such an event, unless external assistance be ren- 
dered, there is no party or no man powerful enough 
to control the turbulent affairs of state. The 
present status quo is far from admirable, but at 
least it is possible. It is perhaps a matter of the 
advisability of discarding known difficulties for 
those that are imknown. One must admit that 
Cabrera preserves order. The dove of peace has 
hovered over the land for a dozen years; whose 
business is it if the poor bird is obliged to wear 
a bomb-proof union suit? 




CHAPTER XVI 
THe Capital City 

city in Central America possesses 
more charm or diversified interest 
than Guatemala's capital. It is 
the largest of them all, and the 
oldest. Its lofty location — on a plateau five 
thousand feet above the ocean — gives it a climate 
that combines the rare delights of the balmy 
Tropics with the invigorating breath of the cooler 
temperate climes. Historically it is a treasure- 
trove. Scenically, its setting is superb. From 
the standpoint of civilisation it is a cross-roads of 
the centuries; the peon Mayan-Quiche Indian, 
descended from the prehistoric rulers of the land, 
carries his burden over the rough-cobbled streets; 
nearby, on the diminutive sidewalk, is his brother, 
now a ragged soldier, bearing a new-model rifle 
purchased from the blood-fund of the republic; 
between the two passes a German drummer, the 
essence of modem nattiness; an ox-cart turns out 

314 



THE CAPITAL CITY 315 

to give an automobile passageway; an American 
ranch owner rubs elbows with a cowled priest; 
yonder is the magnificent shell of a school building, 
and across the way a grim- walled, iron-barred 
barracks. Everywhere there is impressive poverty 
— an uncomplaining poverty. Here and there 
is pretentious wealth — a dissatisfied wealth. It is 
the city of contradictions. 

i Guatemala City dates from the time of our 
North American independence, having been 
foimded in 1776 after the destruction by earth- 
quake of the original capital, some thirty miles 
distant, three years before. The city lies in the 
palm of a glorious valley, rimmed by emerald 
hills and guarded by impressive mountain peaks. 
It was "made to order" and shows it; there are 
no haphazard streets or winding ways that *'just 
grew," like Topsy, but instead an orderly plan 
was followed, with here and there an open plaza 
and with all the streets at right angles to one an- 
other and dividing off blocks of equal size. The 
avenues, avenidas, lie north and south, the calles 
(streets) east and west. 

I know of no better introduction to the city 
than to go fropi the Gran Hotel of a morning to 



3i6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the neighbouring height where stands the church of 
El Carmen and whence a comprehensive view of 
the capital and all the plateau land is spread before 
one. 

The city covers an area about two miles square. 
Its buildings are low and compact — a lesson 
learned from previous seismic disasters — roofed 
with red and brown tiles, and walled with variously 
tinted and usually soiled 'dobe. While the colour 
is far from as richly warm as that of similar Spanish 
cities, it at least offers a multitude of delicate 
chromatic contrasts of whites, pale blues, ochres, 
pinks, and dingy reds that blend delightfully with 
their setting of sunlit countryside, with its green 
fields and gay human colour daubs, while the 
pale blue volcanic cones frame in the near distance, 
their outlines melting into the ethereal bluest- 
blue of the cloud-fiecked heavens. From the low 
sea of roofs rise the few lofty buildings, doubly 
imposing in contrast with their lowly neighbours. 
There are the double towers of the cathedral and 
the domes and spires of lesser churches; here and 
there a squat square building stands out above the 
general level, probably a barracks; far across, on 
an opposite eminence, is the Castillo de San Jose 



i 




Cargadors in the city streets 




Church of El Carmen, Guatemala City 



THE CAPITAL CITY 317 

with walls and towers and a moat, long dry, and 
(as we later saw) a number of cannon all facing 
cityward, unconscious evidence of the fact that 
far greater danger exists within than is feared 
from without. 

El Carrrten is venerable indeed. Its bell bears 
the date of 1748. The massive old church has 
more the appearance of a fortress than of a place 
of worship, and no doubt in its youth — a youth 
that saw Spain in its glory and antedated the 
freedom struggle of the thirteen colonies — the 
padres that ruled its destinies manipulated a flint- 
lock as handily as they could rattle off a prayer 
or chant a Te Deum. The church stands upon 
a knoll clean of other buildings, whose grassy 
slopes sweep down to an unattractive quarter of 
the city on one hand, and on the other merge into 
the open country, with its dusty roads, high walls, 
lowly houses, and patches of rich cultivation. A 
toy street car line comes from the heart of the 
city to the base of the hill. 

The Plaza de Armas is the central square of 
Guatemala City. In it is a pretty park, some odds 
and ends of statuary including a work that por- 
trays Columbus rather precariously perched upon 



3 IS SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

a globe, and the inevitable band-stand. The 
music of the capital, by the way. is excellent. It 
has, if anything, more of the inilitan- character 
than that encountered in the other capitals as 
there is more of brass and drum and stirring fieri- 
ness. That is true also of the national life itself. 

On one side of the plaza is the cathedral, with 
broad stone steps, two ponderous towers, massive 
pillars e?! facade, and a general air of overelaborate- 
ness. In front are four weather-beaten statues, 
presumabh' of the Evangelists, but disfigured 
be3'ond individual recognition, as a hea^y rainfall 
plays havoc even with an evangelist's features 
when they are of soft, coarse stone. At the side 
of the cathedral is the Episcopal Palace, a low, 
substantial structure. 

The plaza is flanked on the north by the m_Lmici- 
pal building, always with a be\w of soldiery 
fluttering about it. A few blocks away are the 
palace and the home of the President, both of one 
story and neither remarkable. The most impos- 
ing building in the city, excepting the cathedral, 
is the Teatro Colon, the national theatre, a digru- 
fied structure, built upon the model of the Made- 
leine Church in Paris. The teatro walls are of 



THE CAPITAL CITY 319 

stucco and plaster; within, the theatre is a very 
creditable affair with an ample stage and a gen- 
erous seating capacity. Its activities are in a 
great measure supported by a government sub- 
sidy, thanks to which it often boasts excellent 
operatic and dramatic talent from Spain and 
Mexico. 

The streets are for the most part narrow and 
paved, where paved at all, with large rough cobbles. 
There always seems to be some paving that is 
undergoing repairs, the result being far from satis- 
factory, so far as getting about is concerned. At 
the time of our visit there was talk of new paving, 
to be done by contract with an American firm; 
also of proposed electric lines. Such projects, it 
seems, have been discussed more than once, and 
may be threshed out for some years yet before 
they become realities. 

The American Club is a pleasant social centre 
for foreigners, and there one may meet men of all 
nations, some of whom have witnessed, on an 
intimate footing, the tragedies and the comedies 
that crowded the national stage during the closing 
quarter of the last century. But the tales they 
tell are guarded, for even to-day and among friends, 



320 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

it is not well to speak too freely of several matters 
in Guatemala City. 

One of the delightful social side issues that open 
up for a guest in the capital is that offered by the 
tennis club, an organisation whose membership 
embraces several nationalities and which gets a 
vast deal of healthy enjoyment from its tennis 
courts. There one may play the game in almost 
climatic perfection during the months th'^t New 
Englanders are buffeting blizzards. But com- 
paratively cool and bracing as is the climate, one 
quickly discovers that one's appetite for strenu- 
ous exercise outdistances physical ability, for 
even in these refreshing highlands one's physical 
ambition *'runs down" with surprising ease. 
''Take it easy," is good advice that is gladly 
obeyed. 

(Baedeker has not yet invaded Guatemala. In 
fact, there is no ''guide-book" worthy of the name, 
which is a matter of supreme satisfaction; for 
who would not rather unearth "finds" for him- 
self than have them thrust at him all tabulated and 
appraised and with a symbolic number of aster- 
isks dictating exactly the amount of enthusiasm 
and attention it is fitting to lavish upon the thing 




The unique concrete relief map of Guatemala 




The Teatro Colon, Guatemala's national theatre 



THE CAPITAL CITY 321 

or place catalogued? All of which is injected here 
for fear that some one might think these rambling 
chapters an attempted catalogue of "things to be 
seen." They are nothing of the kind. It would 
be far better to sit in the market-place and get on 
intimate visual terms with the Indian cargadors 
than to thresh about ''seeing" the "important" 
things. In travel, the important things are the 
things seen; there are no others.) 

Then there is the great relief map of Guatemala, 
which is an immeasurable surprise. It covers 
nearly an acre of ground and is fashioned in con- 
crete, depicting the entire country in a most 
graphic and unique manner. The mountains — • 
with contour lines indicated — are there, the riv- 
ers, valleys, and plains, and on the east and west 
are the oceans, sure-enough watery oceans. The 
general character of the country is indicated by the 
colouring, and railroads and waggon roads are 
mapped in, all with considerable accuracy. The 
administering of a pourboire to the antique care- 
taker will tempt him to turn on water that flows 
forth from the miniature moimtain tops and down 
the furrowed streams into the ''oceans," — a very 
pretty mechanical trick well worth the few pennies 



322 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

the exhibition costs. All in all, the mapa is an 
admirable institution, and one that well might be 
an example for more progressive countries, for in 
its field the idea cannot be excelled either for 
geographical, educational, or general publicity 
value. By studying that map for half an hour 
the visitor gets a very good and certainly an 
extremely graphic mental picture of all Guate- 
mala; it gives a better conception of the general 
''lie of the land " than can be secured from a dozen 
printed maps and pages of description, written or 
spoken. Of course upon a far smaller scale the 
plan is used by educators, but is there anywhere 
such another great physical picture of a country? 
Some day one of our western States will utilise 
the plan. 

I have spoken of the streets being paved with 
large cobbles. These usually are sloped toward 
the centre, so that what gutter there is occupies 
the middle of the street. Guatemala City, dry 
and sunny in January, is anything but dry at the 
height of the rainy season, and then the streets 
are torrents, over which, at the principal comers, 
miniature bridges are constructed for pedestrians. 
A quaint little legend concerns the coming of the 



THE CAPITAL CITY 323 

rainy season. It relates that on October fourth 
St. Francis once went abroad and beat evil-doers 
with the girdle of his robe; the result was many 
tears — so many, that the highways were flooded 
with them. And so that day came to be known 
as San Francisco Day, and now, if report is to be 
believed, the rainy season always starts promptly 
on October fourth, when the first tears of heaven 
flood the streets of the capital and put an end to 
the long dry time. 

Guatemala City is a metropolis of door knockers. 
Every en trance way, from the highest to the low- 
liest, boasts a knocker. Many of them are unique 
and quite desirable from the standpoint of north- 
ern taste. Just now there is one of them upon my 
desk, holding down a pile of photographs which 
some day may see the light of publication, with 
editorial grace. It is of brass; a well-modelled 
hand, suspended from the wrist, grasps a ball; 
fastened to some door in far-away Guatemala, 
hundreds upon hundreds of human hands have 
lifted it. Indeed (the thought is scurrilous!), 
a score or two of knavish bill collectors or other 
vermin may have brazenly banged it a generation 
or two ago, and perhaps been answered (we hope) 



324 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



by an experienced door-boy who lied in charming 
Spanish : ''Sorry, sir, he is not at home. '' 

Be all that as it may, that old battered knocker 
has a modem history just as doubtless there are 
tales it could tell of its own tropical past. An 
important portion of our time in Guatemala 
City was dedicated to what we came to call the 
*' Quest of the Elusive Knocker." It was an 
amusing incident, and came about in detail some- 
what in this wise: 

K., an American friend who spoke Spanish, 
was with us. He pledged himself to secure a 
knocker — an old one, from the door of an old 
house. K., my wife, and I started to track that 
knocker to its lair. We found an abundance of 
lairs, but the difficulty always was to separate the 
lair from the knocker, so to speak. Say we spotted 
a prize on some heavy, studded door. We ap- 
proached with studied innocence; K, rapped. 

''Ah, Senorita!" K. would exclaim. "Is Seiior 
Morales at home?" 

Of course, he was n't, for the very good reason 
that he did n't live there. But K. was good 
looking and well spoken, and the rest of us re- 
mained in the bashful background. 





u 



THE CAPITAL CITY 325 

"Too bad ! Too bad indeed, " the wily K. would 
then continue musingly. ''Strange, Senor Morales 
assured me this was his address. Let me see — " 
here the gay deceiver consulted a notebook — 
''Yes, here it is. Number 19, this street. And he 
particularly mentioned the knocker. A rare old 
brass knocker, he said. — Ah, what a splendid one 
you yourself have '* 

More in this vein. Perhaps Sefiorita warmed 
up; perhaps she didn't. Every experiment 
brought different results. But each time, when 
the crucial question came up: Would it be pos- 
sible to purchase the beautiful knocker? the answer 
was negative; sometimes smilingly, occasionally 
brusquely, once offendedly negative, but always 
decisively. 

So it went. We tramped through many a calle 
and along many an avenida, for, of necessity, our 
calls in one neighbourhood were limited. Alto- 
gether, the little farce was most enjoyable, and in 
its making we saw much of the city at close range 
and ghmpsed the interior of half a score of homes. 
Our farce had a happy ending; that is a rule for 
any really good one. And the ultimate reward of 
persistency was the brass-hand knocker that lies 



326 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

close to my typewriter as I put down these words. 
It cost five Guatemalan dollars — twenty-five of 
our cents. 

While Mexico alone of our western continent 
countries rightfully can be called a land of the 
bull-fight, Guatemala at least has the instincts 
for bull-fighting. In the capital there is a large 
bull ring pretty well equipped and actively used 
during the winter months. We failed to see a 
^'real" fight, but we did view a rough-and-tumble 
bull-baiting, which lacked the cruelty of a fight, 
while retaining most of its interesting features and 
adding to them much that was amusing. 

Fiestas are held at Guardia Viejo, a suburb of 
Guatemala City, and there we went one Sunday 
afternoon, choosing a carriage — a very formal 
landeau — as our vehicle in preference to the cheese- 
box street car with its two-mule-power locomotion 
and a railroad train densely packed with festival 
humanity. We found Guardia Viejo, consisting 
chiefly of a very wide street flanked with low 
buildings. Outside the latter were booths with 
things to eat and drink, and games to play, most 
of them games of chance; inside were other 
eating places, more expensive and perceptibly 



THE CAPITAL CITY 327 

cleaner, and more games, also more expensive. In 
one hall a marimba played for a company of 
dancers, and its queer, lilting, lively music floated 
out through the narrow windows and on to the 
crowded, dusty street. 

The marimba is a musical instrument peculiarly 
Central American, and is encountered far more 
often in Guatemala than in any of the other lands. 
It is fashioned somewhat on the order of a xylo- 
phone, the sounds being produced by striking 
strips of wood below which are resonators of wood 
or hide. The strips extend along a frame six or 
more feet in length, behind which usually three — 
or even four — performers stand, each with two 
sticks, not unlike drumsticks, in each hand, with 
which he strikes the *'keys. '* With no music to 
guide them, and little or no training, the perform- 
ances of the marimba musicians are remarkable 
for their excellence and especially for the almost 
perfect time kept by the three independent per- 
formers even in very rapid and complicated pieces. 
As regards the general effect of the marimba music, 
it is hard to improve this description: "It is like 
several pianos and harps combined, together with 
a bass effect not unlike a bass viol. " One sees the 



328 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

instruments everywhere, and even on the most 
remote roads and trails, it is common enough to 
find a band of three bare-legged fellows trotting 
along, taking turn and turn about in carrying their 
portable orchestra. 

For us the feature of that fiesta was the bull- 
Laiting. A section of the broad street had been 
fenced off, and there the crude entertainment was 
enacted, to the huge enjoyment of the tatterde- 
malion crowd that thronged every possible van- 
tage point, not neglecting even the few dwarfed 
trees in the arena itself, into whose branches a few 
enterprising early-comers swarmed — and remained, 
you may be sure, while the bull pranced about 
just beneath them! 

A bugle called, and out came the bull from a 
small corral in the comer of the arena. The crowd 
hooted, the bull snorted, and a ragged matador 
pranced up and waved a bright shawl in the ani- 
mal's face. Forthwith the bull charged — and had 
the doubtful satisfaction of impaling the shawl 
upon his horns, instead of the nimble-footed 
matador. That was the game, over and over again. 
There were rather too many men in the "ring" 
to make it good baiting, for so many annoyances 




Manuel Estrada Cabrera Temple of Minerva, Guatemala 




Bull-baiting at Guardia Viejo 



THE CAPITAL CITY 329 

were thrust at him that the bull could not con- 
scientiously concentrate upon any single enemy. 
But even at that he scored some victories; on 
half a dozen occasions his horns made connection 
with his tormentors, usually in the neighbourhood 
of the seat of their trousers, and then a bold 
matador pirouetted in the air, to the great joy of 
the onlookers, who liked nothing better than to 
see the baiters discomfited. Of course this was a 
comparatively mild-mannered bull, and nothing 
worse was done than to annoy him; but even at 
that he became a very mad bull. So it was cu- 
rious to see him when he did get a tormentor on 
the ground; once the man was down, and lay 
perfectly still, the bull lost all interest in him; 
instead of homing him, or trampling him, the 
instant a matador had fallen the bull paid no fur- 
ther attention to him, immediately turning to the 
others. Doubtless their known safety was the 
reason for the comparative courage of the baiters. 
But truth to tell, most of it was "Dutch cour- 
age, " for the wine that is red figured largely in the 
proceedings of the day. ''White eye" is the local 
name of the national — infinitely cheap — intoxicant 
which is specially popular at fiesta times. 



330 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

In time, the baiting tamed. Then one daring 
individual, fortified by ''white eye," essayed to 
ride that bull, who by now, though tired, was 
truly "as mad as a bull." After a laborious 
lassoing, which was accomplished as clumsily as 
could be imagined, the bull was snubbed close to 
a tree, and the rider made his preparations to 
mount. Just then some one insulted his bullship 
too grossly with a sharp stick, and all at once by 
a gigantic effort accompanied by a mighty bellow- 
ing he was free, amidst a cloud of dust, overturned 
humanity, and explosive profanity. With a bel- 
low the bull singled out as a victim the would-be 
rider, and made after him. He knew what he 
wanted by now, did that bull, and it very clearly 
was the gore of that individual. The efforts of 
gallant matadors to divert his attention availed 
nothing — Mr. Bull directed every faculty to the 
task of making connections with that particular 
human pest. The two — beast and man — cavorted 
around the arena, the former charging, the latter 
dodging, one furious, the other by now thoroughly 
frightened. All at once the man slipped — the bull 
all but -got him — a matter of a few inches. Then 
the fugitive lost the last shreds of his nerve, and 



THE CAPITAL CITY 331 

made for the fence with all sails set, yelling mightily 
and intimately pursued by the bull. The man got 
there first — again a matter almost of inches — and 
was dragged over. But that bull was persistent; 
a fence appeared a trivial matter to him, and with 
a mighty crash he tore into it. The fence crumpled ; 
the crowd disintegrated like dust; under horses' 
feet they went pellmell, trampHng each other, 
climbing poles, trees, and walls; a dozen swarmed 
over our carriage. It was an indescribable melee 
and a glorious victory for the bull, who clattered 
off down the imdisputed street like a vigorous 
tornado. 

Later I saw a cockfight in a cockpit tucked away 
inside a patio, and a cruel affair it was, for in 
Guatemala the "sportsmen" are not content to 
have the birds fight with the spurs nature has 
given them, but add razor-sharp little blades 
which are fastened to the cocks' legs. Thanks to 
those the fights are horribly bloody and last but 
a few minutes, when one of the birds is pretty sure 
to be nearly cut to pieces. 

After witnessing a couple of Guatemalan bouts 
I could not but compare them with fights seen 
in Panama. At best cockfights are degrading 



332 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

spectacles, but despite all that justly can be said 
against them, it must be admitted that there is a 
thrill about them. The best fights at Panama 
are, I suppose, as little cruel and revolting as a 
cockfight can be. More than that, some of them 
come precious close to being real "sporting " events 
with plenty of give-and-take chance and a decided 
(and astonishing) element of human cunning about 
the battle methods of the ringsters. 

Concerning one Panamanian fight I find this 
description in my notebook ; it at least shows that 
there are uncertainties connected with cock- 
fighting. 

''Owners appear with the birds, hidden away 
in feed bags or elaborate cloth coverings. They 
are handled with all the care and caution which 
is not bestowed upon the naked youth of the com- 
munity, who are permitted to do as heaven and 
their own sweet will dictate, while their parents 
are caring for the more pressing wants of their 
favourite game birds. 

" This is the first real sporting feature of the cock- 
fight, this matching of unknown birds. The two 
who are to fight are selected simply by their weight. 
Many are tried on the official scales until two are 



THE CAPITAL CITY 333 



found who exactly tip off each other, or until the 
respective owners are satisfied. So there is no 
telling whom your pet chanticleer will draw. His 
adversary may be an old-time champion, with a 
score of bloody and profitable victories to his 
credit, or he may be some green youngster who 
will turn tail and give up the ghost after the first 
set-to. 

''But they make their bets just the same, owner 
against owner, irrespective of what cocks are to 
fight. And, indeed, the owners themselves do 
not know until after the bags have been opened 
and the birds are taken out to be preened and 
* rubbed down' for the combat. 

"In brief, there was a red gamester and a dun 
fighter. One we christened Red Head and the 
other Sandy. From the start Red had his adver- 
sary guessing. He parried and thrust, and side- 
stepped and feinted, with practised skill. He was 
scientific to the very end of his tail feathers. 
Sandy, on the other hand, was a bruiser. He 
wanted a knockout in the first round, and wanted 
it in the worst kind of way. So he went after Red 
about the way Battling Nelson would ' eat up ' a 
green Swede just out of a lumber camp. He 



334 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

rushed the red-feathered bird all over the pit. 
In the vernacular of the ringside, there was 
'nothing to it.' 

''The crowd went wild. Odds flew up on Sandy. 

"And in the meantime, Red was groggy. Oh, 
yes, fighting cocks can be groggy, and they show 
it just the way a two-fisted fighter does. He wab- 
bled around. His wings flapped dismally. There 
was no life left in his jumps, and no determination 
in his few feeble attempts to land his spurs as he 
sprang in the air despairingly. 

"Of course, the fine points of the art were lost 
to the American spectators, uneducated in the 
finesse of the game. But even to an American it 
was evident that Red was 'all in.' Then all 
of a sudden he lost his nerve, lost it utterly, and 
turned tail. As he could n't get out of the pit, he 
circled round and round it, and close after him 
came Sandy, greedy for victory. 

"And here was where Red showed that there was 
a good supply of superfine grey matter in his 
little head. He kept the inner track. Every 
time he went around he traversed about two 
thirds of the distance the other bird did, for the 
pursuing Sandy was always kept outside of Red, 



THE CAPITAL CITY 335 

the latter shortening his circle when the dun- 
coloured bird tried to rush in. 

"So it went for full fifteen minutes, simply a 
merry-go-round, with the spectators hooting the 
coward bird. Then something happened. If you 
had seen it, it might have reconciled you to cock- 
fighting. For all at once it was evident what was 
going on down there in the pit. Sandy was tiring 
out ; Red had led him into a long, stem chase and 
provoked him into wasting his energy on exhaust- 
ing and fruitless attacks. While Red had loafed 
along for perhaps a mile Sandy had been fooled 
into running at top speed nearly twice that dis- 
tance. And Red was fresh and Sandy was dead 
tired. 

*' The people saw it, and yelled approval. Red 
realised it, too, and changed his tactics. All at 
once he stopped nmning and turned on the 
pursuing and exhausted Sandy. There was one 
fierce flare of feathers, one scratching mass of 
rooster, and Red, the almost- vanquished, was 



CHAPTER XVII 



Ruins and a Painting 




UATEMALA CITY Hes some 
seventy-five miles from the Pacific 
and twice that distance from the 
Atlantic Ocean. The Guatemala 
Central is the western railroad, built by Collis P. 
Huntington. On the east, connecting the capital 
with Puerto Barrios, on the Gulf of Honduras, is 
the Guatemala Northern, the two roads forming 
the northernmost of the three transcontinental 
routes that span Central America, across each 
one of which our casual travels took us. Both 
railroads possess, through grants and otherwise, 
enormously valuable landholdings in various dis- 
tricts of the country, beside being fortified with 
other concessionary properties and rights. 

Before sunrise one day we left the Gran Hotel 
and made our way to the Guatemala Northern 
depot, and there boarded a train for an all-day 

journey to Quirigua, some sixty miles from the 

336 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 337 

Atlantic coast, where are hidden away the relics 
of a gigantic ruined city whose story antedates 
by centuries the known history of our western 
world. 

The country differed greatly from that traversed 
in ascending the slope from the Pacific. The 
scenic side of the journey resolves itself into three 
phases, the first of which, in the highland regions 
of the capital, is a changing picture of abysmal 
gorges, rugged hills, and picturesque countryside, 
all wildly abrupt and fascinating. The second 
phase of the journey carries one into the Herra 
caliente, and for many dusty, hot, and weary miles 
the train drags through a region that bears the 
earmarks (in January) of perpetual rainlessness, 
and where cacti and yuccas are the only vegetation 
that seem to thrive, and a listless shnmken river 
wanders seaward, affording its parched valley 
little refreshment other than the convenience 
of washing soiled clothes upon the roimded, sun- 
baked rocks of its shores. The lower strata brings 
one again to the coastal plains, where the Tropics 
hold undisputed sway, with sweltering heat and 
rain and fabulous productiveness. 

At Zacapa we nooned and ate a luncheon in the 



338 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

depot dining-room. Zacapa is a bustling place 
at train time, for here the up and the down trains 
pass each other, and there is a fearful dusty rush 
for the provender, while small boys stand guard 
over one's hand-baggage and seats in the coaches 
for a nominal consideration. 

I remember that luncheon well, chiefly for a 
trivial incident. A hog shared the table with us 
and half a dozen other travellers. A human hog, 
that is, one of the species that wallows here and 
there about the globe and should have a ring in its 
snout. Ours was a crowded, fairly dirty, and 
comestibly depleted table. The only appetising 
thing in sight was a bowl of lettuce, which looked 
cool and crisp. Perhaps it was. We never had 
an opportunity to find out, for a massive German 
plumped himself down at the end of the table, 
annexed the salad, poured oil and vinegar upon the 
whole concoction, and then hurried it into his 
own cavernous interior. No one spoke, but I 
know that a silent prayer went up from every 
sufferer; if ever the Lord was called upon to smite 
a man it was then! May he be cursed with 
everlasting indigestion ! 

Late in the afternoon we reached Quirigua and 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 339 

forthwith were taken in tow by the superintendent 
of the United Fruit Company's banana plantation, 
which has turned the long unused jungle swamps 
into a ''paying proposition" and now encroaches 
upon the very outskirts of the ruined city. 
Seventy-five acres have been reserved for the 
Mayan relics. 

''And it 's some of the very best banana land, 
too," lamented the superintendent. 

He was paid to make bananas grow. That was 
his business — to have them thrive and make money 
for the U. F. So it was irksome to see a patch of 
promising swamp produce nothing more than a 
crop of ruins that date back nearly to the time of 
Christ. He was of the Yankee school whose 
disciples would plough up the Forum Romanum 
for a wheat field or use the relics of Pompeii for 
railroad ballast. 

We dined and slept at the superintendent's 
quarters, where we were kindly received as guests, 
and early the following morning sallied forth in 
a motor car that was the twin brother to the one 
travelled in a month or two before along the tracks 
of the Zent banana walks in Costa Rica. A short 
spin and we stopped beside a bedraggled Carib hut. 



340 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

A muddy path opened up behind it, speedily 
vanishing in the neighbouring jungle. A couple 
of languid darkies lifted the car from the track. 

''Here's the road to yesterday," laughed our 
guide, and we plunged after him through the 
slough. 

Although it was not yet sun-up, the air was 
oppressively hot — so hot that we soon were per- 
spiring uncomfortably. A mist hung close to the 
thickets. The grass was water-soaked and every 
tree branch disturbed spattered down upon us a 
miniature shower-bath; and there were branches 
a-plenty, for even such a much-used trail as this is 
overgrown quickly in a land where the vegetation 
refuses to be suppressed and vines and trees and 
grasses will blot out an entire field almost in a few 
weeks if left unmolested. As we advanced toward 
the heart of that dense, dark, dank jungle, so 
oozingly treacherous underfoot, and so amazingly 
alive in its baffling upper growth, it seemed small 
wonder that an entire city had been swallowed in 
its midst and remained hidden there for centuries. 
Forgotten and unknown indeed, until 1840, when 
a Mr. Catherwood, an artist, stumbled upon some 
of the lesser ruins. 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 341 

Then all at once there was a little clearing, and 
in its midst a massive stone monument — an en- 
during souvenir of a bygone race, intricately 
carved with the glyph symbols whose key was lost 
when its long-dead writers abandoned their hold 
upon the country and were destroyed or driven 
no one knows whither by some equally imknown 
force. 

In the midst of that jungle we faced America's 
Yesterday. 

** World wrongly called the New! This clime was old 
When first the Spaniards came, in search of gold. 
Cities rose, ruled, dwindled to decay. 
Empires were formed, then darkly swept away." 

We stood where the first kings of the southland 
stood, and where they ruled and worshipped and 
were mighty in a civilisation whose relics show it 
more than worthy of comparison with the civilisa- 
tion that to-day has inherited its old imperial do- 
mains. Historians have established the fact that 
these ruins were a living, sentient city not later 
than eight centuries ago; that Quirigua was in 
its prime about 500-650 a. d. is a supposition 
scientifically based. They are Mayan ruins. 



342 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Anything much more definite than that bare 
sentence is not yet forthcoming. Only the 
physical facts of the dead city remain — the scat- 
tered monuments, the pyramid, the occasional 
paving and bits of wall, half buried in the dark 
earth and mud that wholly covered all else count- 
less years ago. Soon some secrets may be wrested 
from the jungle-smothered, mud-covered historical 
treasure chest; for already archaeological expedi- 
tions from the United States have tinkered with 
its locks, and thorough excavations are arranged 
for. 

The first object to catch our eager attention was 
one of thirteen monoliths, or monuments, that are 
scattered among the ruins. These stelse are 
elaborately carved, with figures, ornately deco- 
rated and garbed, and with complicated hiero- 
glyphics adorning the sides, which doubtless 
would tell a wonderful story could they but be 
translated. One stela stands twenty feet above 
the ground and leans more than twelve feet out 
of the perpendicular, so that to keep it in position 
there must be at least ten feet of the column under 
ground. In addition to the more striking erect 
monuments are a number of squat stones, even 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 343 

more grotesquely carved, one of which portrays 
what might be a tiger's or a turtle's head (thirteen 
hundred years ago the resemblance may have 
been greater than it is to-day), while a round 
stone near the centre of the ruins, whose top and 
sides are covered with glyphs and symbols, with 
an elaborately dressed woman as the central 
figure, is considered by scientists perhaps the most 
interesting example of stone carving yet discovered 
in the western hemisphere. 

Across the northern end of the ruins lies the 
remains of a wall, now little more than a mound. 
Near the centre is a pyramid with a base covering 
a rough square some 150 feet in dimension and 
originally in excess of forty feet high. We found 
this pyramid a tangled mass of greenery, and could 
clamber up only with difficulty where others had 
made some pretence of a trail. Many of its 
blocks are of marble, and such examples of the 
masonry work as remain intact show a high degree 
of mechanical skill on the part of the builders. 
Roughly speaking, this pyramid seems to occupy 
the centre of what was once a great open court, 
the latter flagged with blocks of stone and probably 
partially hemmed in by walls, and, perhaps, roofed 



344 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

buildings. From what we saw of the pyramid 
there seemed good reason to believe that it is not 
a solid mass of stones, but has chambers and pas- 
sageways hidden within it. No doubt their final 
excavation will bring to light matters of surpassing 
interest. The stelse are scattered aroimd the 
pyramid, the greater number of them to its north, 
between it and the most distinctly remaining wall. 

The ruins lie in the lowland valley of the 
Motagua River about half a mile from the stream's 
present course, and doubtless it is the residue left 
from the overflow of this river that has gradually 
filled in above them, until the one-time groimd 
level of the ancient city is covered to a depth 
ranging, perhaps, from three to ten feet. 

Nearby there are still well-defined traces of a 
canal. Several theories are advanced concerning 
it. One, plausible enough, is that it afforded water 
connection with the river. Another is that the 
bit of canal remaining to-day is but a fraction of 
a comprehensive system that formerly existed, 
whose chief purpose was to give means of trans- 
portation for the enormous amount of stone used 
in constructing the city. Whither they may have 
led and whence came the stone are unsolved 




A relic of Mayan art, Quirigua 




A view of the rain-washed Guatemalan countryside 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 345 

mysteries that one is at liberty to add to the host 
of riddles conjured up by this puzzle-city of long 
ago. 

There are unanswerable historic puzzles, un- 
solved racial questions, and baffling ethnological 
enigmas clinging to the lost story of Quirigua, 
the scientists will tell you. But for a layman 
this riddle alone is enough : How and whence came 
the tremendous blocks of stone? 

Some of those monuments weigh at least ten 
tons each, and all are of a soft, coarse sandstone. 
As far as can be ascertained, no such stone is 
found anywhere near Quirigua. It seems incred- 
ible that the ancient people quarried these huge 
blocks many miles away and then carried them, 
Heaven knows how, to their city. Even to-day, 
with all our mechanical contrivances, it is said that 
it would be next to impossible to transport those 
great monoliths away from Quirigua, through the 
swamps and slime, even should the Guatemalan 
government permit the scientists to annex one. 
How, then, did the Mayans contrive a similar task 
so many years ago? 

Next to nothing is known of the history of the 
Mayas. They, or the Toltecs, are supposed to 



346 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

have preceded the Aztecs as the dominant race of 
southern North America. The latter were at 
the height of their power and phenomenal civilisa- 
tion when Alvarado and the Spanish hordes swept 
into Mexico and Central America early in the six- 
teenth century. The Toltecs are credited with the 
construction of the city of Tula, in the Valley of 
Mexico, about the seventh century. That they 
may have been driven from that territory by the 
Aztecs and thence wandered into Guatemala is 
a plausible theory. But the puzzles of all this are 
for anthropologists; the wonders of the ancient 
civilisation remain for the unscientific observer of 
to-day, to dumbfound him with the realisation that 
long before Montezuma's empire was a reality 
and centuries before Europe even dreamed of a 
western continent, there flourished here in southern 
Mexico and Guatemala a marvellous civilization 
whose little-known relics to-day offer as sub- 
stantial and fascinating a field of pleasurable 
research as any on our hemisphere. And Quirigua 
is only one among several ruined cities, the other 
important ones being Palenque and Uxmal in 
Yucatan, Utatlan in Guatemala, and Copan in 
Honduras. 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 347 

All about the Quirigua ruins themselves, traces 
of a prehistoric community are encountered. 
Every now and then labourers digging drains for 
the adjacent banana walks will unearth masses of 
pottery, most of which is extremely fragmentary. 
I now have a small human face, evidently a part 
of a vase or ornament, which was dug up by a 
Jamaican in a trench a few hundred paces from the 
offices. The features are of a supercilious cast 
and the nose is gigantic — a very Roman Roman 
nose it is — and that feature — the large, familiarly 
curved nose — ^is found on every face. Which led 
one of the young fellows employed by the United 
Fruit Company to remark that this clue removed 
every vestige of doubt concerning the identity of 
the Mayas. 

''Why, there's no mystery at all," he said. 
''Of course they sprang from the lost children of 
Israel." 

Whatever the ancestry of the Mayas and the 
Toltecs, the group of young men at the superin- 
tendent's house assuredly had a diversified ances- 
try of their own, and, no doubt, a checkered 
history. One was a Britisher — conversationally 
the most supremely British Britisher with whom I 



348 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ever mixed metaphors or " 'arf and 'arfs. " When 
he spoke an overfioy/ of discarded "h's" accumu- 
lated beside him, while in free-for-all, catch-as- 
catch-can talking it was as hard to follow him as 
a Jamaican — and any one who has tried to under- 
stand the ungodly linguistic hybrid offered by a 
Jamaican knows our suffering tongue at its worst. 

I have spoken of the way banana men regarded 
the Quirigua ruins — as a nuisance occupying useful 
ground. It also happened that this particular 
group had small patience for art; their disrespect 
and its special target introduced us to a quaint 
adventure. Its dramatis personcE^ were an ''Old 
Master" and a tropical tramp. 
. The first time we saw the former it impressed 
us little more than it did the banana-men, but 
that may be excused on the ground that a century- 
old coating of grime disguised its true beauty. 
The tropical tramp was the owner of the painting, 
which he still is, and is as well a valued and delight- 
ful friend. His name is Edward Kildare, and it 
is only because he himself admits its fitness that 
I venture to style him (what he was) a "tropical 
tramp." 

In the dining-room of the banana superin- 



RUIXS AXD A PAIXTIXG 349 

tendent's house, which was pretty much a company 
mess, there hung a ding}' painting, which looked 
old enough to be valuable and certainly was so 
antique as to be nearly undecipherable. A gibe 
or two passed across the supper table, directed at 
Kildare by his fellows, for evidently his pride in 
the painting kept him a constant target for 
ridicule. 

'"Say, Kildare, why not make a beer sign out of 
it?" was one suggestion. 

Another chaffer, I recall, reminded the amateur 
collector that ''a real Old 2vlaster should be put in 
a safe, as they 're worth thousands." 

The next day Kildare was a fellow-traveller on 
the train returning to Guatemala City. It ap- 
peared that some friction with the powers that 
be had arisen, so he bundled up his dunnage bag 
and bade Quirigua good-b\'e. He left a time check 
that would be due in a month, and the painting, 
both to be forwarded later, and struck out on 
a two-hour whim. He was, in a way, typical 
enough of the genus Ho?no that goes by the nam.e 
of "tropical tramp " in the southland, although not 
quite t\'pical either, because he lacked too many 
of their vices. But Kildare was a "sho'-enough" 



350 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

tramp, and one for the pure love of it, for he had, 
he confessed, a bad case of the wanderlust. His 
first tropical experiences had been at Panama, 
where he served three years in the Canal army, 
and thence graduated northward through Central 
America, holding first one job and then another, 
and always contriving to get a vast deal of enjoy- 
ment from his joumeyings. Just then he was in 
that financial status that lies intimately next to 
that one called ''broke" and which can merge so 
rapidly into the latter if given half a chance. 
Kildare had forty dollars. And even at that he 
never tried to borrow, which is another reason that 
he is n't a full-fledged tropical tramp ; any one who 
has suffered will explain. 

At Zacapa we saw the last of Kildare, for there 
he left the train, planning to take up a horseback 
journey of some hundreds of miles over unknown 
mountain trails in Honduras, his objective point 
being the American mines of San Juancita, inland 
from Amapala, where the Connecticut girls lived 
to whom we had bidden a Christmas-time good- 
b3^e down the coast. So we gave the hairbrained 
traveller a note to our friends, and he in turn 
entrusted us with a message to home folks near 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 351 

San Francisco. Then lie was off, with a few 
potinds of baggage in his roll, forty dollars and 
a copy of the Golden Treasury in his jeans, and 
a happy determination to see all there was to see. 

''There 's no telling," he laughed as he left us, 
*'I might run on to something big. It '11 be inter- 
esting anyhow." And away he started for Hon- 
duras, to get there God knows how ! 

One evening a week later we found in our rooms 
at the Gran Hotel in Guatemala City a glorious 
lot of cut flowers — several baskets crowded with 
every kind of bloom and blossom. The mystery 
of whence they came was explained by a card 

^'FromTheT. T." 

And then while we were pondering how our 
friend of Quirigua could contrive to send flowers 
from Honduras, all at once there was a knock at the 
door and who should appear but Kildare himself! 

He had essayed the trails from Zacapa, but after 
a brief experience their hopeless condition, result- 
ing from tropical downpours and flooded moun- 
tain torrents, had compelled him to abandon the 
attempt and turn back. So he came to the 
capital and found us. In the meantime plans had 



352 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

been changed again, and Honduras with its mines 
and possible art treasures was no longer the 
desideratum, but instead he would give up the 
Tropics for a time and go with us to San Francisco, 
which was welcome news, as a more welcome 
travel companion could not have been contrived. 

So the Picture was sent for, and arrived from 
Quirigua a few days before we went down to San 
Jose and the steamer we supposed would be wait- 
ing for us there. 

Kildare waxed more and more enthusiastic about 
that painting as we came to know him better, and 
so did we, when we saw it at close range. It was 
a wonderful piece of work, and we had a wonderful 
time with it — indeed, who could ask for a more 
unique fellow-traveller than a picture painted on 
copper by an ''old master" in the seventeenth 
century, picked up by chance in a Central Amer- 
ican city and finally brought into its heritage of 
recognition by a tropical tramp? It all sounds 
like a fairy story, doesn't it? But instead of 
being fiction it proved itself most delightful fact, 
and the outcome of the adventure was that Kil- 
dare's treasure has brought him offers of $20,000, 
which have been refused as being too low. The 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 353 

find cost him $42.50, and — best of all, as he sees 
it — the banana men thought his judgment crazy! 

It must be admitted that we too were doubters 
at the outset, for it is hard to stumble upon a 
chance painting far away from the beaten tracks, 
a painting that has been picked up by a soldier 
of fortune for a song, and all at once be convinced 
that it is what its owner thinks it — a priceless 
treasure from the brush of a great Flemish School 
artist, painted three hundred years ago and lost 
to fame for a century or two by some freakish 
whim of fate. No, it was hard to believe. And 
yet we recognised the beauty of the work, while 
we scarce dared credit its value. 

Briefly, the painting is by Peter Ykens, a master 
of the Flemish School, who died in 1695. (While 
the quaint signature of Ykens was there for us to 
see at the outset, of course, it was not until 
months after our return to the United States that 
its genuineness was reliably established and judg- 
ment of connoisseurs passed upon the work as a 
whole.) It apparently represents the birth-scene 
of Ykens's son, Jan Peeter, and depicts a family 
grouped about the bed of the mother with the 
babe and its nurses the central figures, all magnifi- 



354 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

cently drawn and standing out from the sombre 
tones of the background as sunlight contrasts 
with shadow. The colouring is radiant and deep, 
reminiscent — if it be not sacrilege to say it — of 
Rembrandt's royal hand. 

The picture, which is about thirty -five by forty- 
six inches, is upon hand-beaten copper, to which 
fact it doubtless owes its existence and certainly 
its excellent state of preservation. 

However, that copper added to the difficulties 
of getting it away from Guatemala, for it will be 
remembered that one of the principal duties of the 
customs authorities is to guard against the exporta- 
tion of metals. As there are further rules prohibit- 
ing the removal of objects of historic interest from 
the country, it will be seen that we had a pretty 
task with our queer treasure. It finally was 
smuggled through as an original work of my own, 
securely boxed and never allowed out of my hands 
for fear that the abnormal weight of the copper 
"canvas" would wreck the whole enterprise. As 
I had been seen sketching (I had made it a point 
to be seen, though posterity will never see the 
sketches!) there was no serious difficulty. And 
what might have happened should they have 



RUINS AND A PAINTING 355 

insisted upon an examination of my ''sketch"! 
There can be no doubt that Ykens, if his spirit be 
at all sensitive, turned in his grave as I, a Yankee 
impostor, went forth from one of the old-time 
Spanish colonies palming off as my modern own 
this long-buried child of his genius. 

When discovered in a Guatemala City junkshop 
the picture was inclosed in a frame of solid wrought 
silver some ten inches wide, and the dealer agreed 
to let it go for the weight-value of the silver, about 
four hundred dollars, throwing the picture into 
the bargain. But beautiful and valuable as was 
the frame, Kildare had no such sum, and finally 
made a dicker with the owner by which he secured 
the painting for $42.50. And at that each believed 
the other shockingly cheated ! 

The history of the Old Master is a closed 
chapter. When and how it left Spain may, per- 
haps, be established, but its wanderings and 
changes of fortune in Central America can never 
be unearthed. Could it speak for itself no doubt 
a strange tale would be told of the golden days 
of the Spanish conquistador es and grandees, and of 
the tragic century that followed their downfall. 

Through the long days of the voyage northward 



356 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

up the West Coast we pieced together possible 
and impossible romances for our copper treasure, 
in the meantime gently removing the grime of 
ages from its face by ceaseless rubbing with — the 
most unromantic beauty restorer imaginable — ■ 
Irish potatoes! 



CHAPTER XVIII 




Antigua 

HE road to Antigua is a sheer delight. 
It has been my good fortune at one 
time and another to gHmpse the 
famed highways that surround 
Italy's gorgeous Bay of Naples, to tramp through 
the most lovely districts of rural England, to view 
much of beautiful Sweden and majestic Norway on 
the intimate footing of a highroad vagabond, and to 
wander largely throughout our own North Amer- 
ica, seeing somewhat of hardy Canada and New 
England, of the gentle South, the brilliant South- 
West, the broad middle West, and, above all, the 
rare scenic playgrounds of the gloriously big 
Pacific Slope territory. But for pure out-of-door 
traveller's satisfaction give me the road to Antigua, 
the trail we followed later toward Acatenango, 
and a score of other routes that wander hither and 

yon through this Guatemalan land of winter-time 

357 



358 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

delight. For the highlands of Guatemala have 
the grandeur of the mountains, a rugged ever- 
shifting picturesqueness, the blessing of gay 
flowers and shrubs and endless trees, quaint ruins 
of to-day and yesterday, and a native life that is 
replete with vivid colouring and unique interest. 
And then there is the climate, which, during the 
first three months of the year, is nothing short of 
perfection. 

One morning we left Guatemala City bound for 
Antigua in a dilijencia, drawn by a ''spike" team 
of five mules. As far as the vehicle was concerned, 
we might have been jolting over the sage-brush 
plains of our own far West; the combination of 
chuck-holes and dilapidated waggon-springs was 
peculiarly reminiscent of pioneer days on Oregon's 
Shaniko flats, when people too impatient to wait 
for railroads went to Bend by stagecoach over one 
hundred miles of road whose condition could not be 
accurately described when ladies were present. 

The first stage of the journey took us through 
picturesque villages and cultivated areas. Here 
and there was a shrine at the wayside. Sometimes 
the road was separated from the fields and cafetals 
by 'dobe fences, crumbled or gaily tinted with 




Antigua is a spectre of former magnificence 




Quarters of banana men at Quirigua 



ANTIGUA 359 



newly applied calcimine as the case might be, 
while elsewhere its only boundary was straggling 
cactus. Although the road itself was dusty, the 
fields were green and the wayside carpeted v/ith 
flowers. 

The greatest interest was the continuous stream 
of humanity which poured along the highway, 
cit3rward, for when we started it was early morning 
and the cargadors, the women, and the ox-carts 
were coming in to the market as flies come to 
sugar. They all carried some burden. Even the 
tiniest youngsters had for a back-pack a bundle of 
faggots, for wood is scarce and the family must 
have fuel for cooking the noonday meal in the 
shade of some wall or tree. 

The chief burden of the cargadors, the profes- 
sional carriers with racks on their backs, is pottery. 
One of the striking things about their work — and 
it typifies the aboriginal crudity of the general 
development — is that these carriers cross each 
other's paths with what is practically the same 
manufactured product. For instance, one carga- 
dor takes a flat earthenware bowl for 150 miles 
to a district w^here the only kind made is a round 
vase affair, so creating what railroad men call a 



360 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

cross-haul. Both articles are made from identi- 
cally the same clay, but each district knows how to 
mould only one pattern. Every village has made 
its particular kind perhaps for centuries; the art 
has been handed down from generation to genera- 
tion and if the idea of incorporating other models 
into the local manufacture ever has occurred to 
any Indian it is more than probable that he was 
cast forth as a rank heretic. So to-day the brown 
cargadors are everywhere with their different loads, 
which they carry often for more than a hundred 
miles at a daily wage of a few cents. 

All of them run or dog- trot ; for there is no walk- 
ing. The distances covered are marvellous, as is 
the contempt they feel for miles. For instance, 
I learned of men who run nine miles every day to 
their labour, and back again at night, and think 
nothing at all of it. Once I forgot a roll of films, 
and an hour after we had left on horseback my 
host, discovering our loss, sent it after us by a 
mozo: eleven miles from the finca the runner 
caught us and seemed delighted when I gave him 
a couple of pesos — ten cents! 

None of the human burden-bearers of the road 
use their hands to carry even the lightest article, 



ANTIGUA 361 



for with the exception of what is packed on the 
back, everything is placed upon the head and 
balanced there. Some of the results, at least from 
the standpoint of a northern traveller, are amus- 
ing. There is the old story of the Indian who was 
entrusted with the delivery of a letter, and instead 
of carrying it in his hand went down the street 
with a brick on his head, the letter anchored un- 
derneath the brick. I have seen a girl stand on 
the curb and hold a horse for an hour while its 
master was dining, and all the time she kept on 
her head a basket of fruit which must have 
weighed thirty pounds or more; it was easier to 
leave it there than to set it down! Once we 
watched masons building a wall; the tender, who 
carried the mortar for the other who was upon the 
platform some five feet above the ground, stood 
beneath with the forty-pound bucket of mortar 
upon his head while the top man extracted what 
he wanted with his trowel ; the process lasted ten 
minutes for each bucketful, but apparently the 
tender figured that there was less exertion in let- 
ting the bucket stay where it was than it would 
be to set it on the scaffolding. 

In a previous chapter I have spoken of the 



362 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

women of the road and of their splendid physical 
strength and sturdy Htheness. With them the 
law of the survival of the fittest works out unspar- 
ingly. The laggards and the unfit die by the 
roadside; at least, they are seldom if ever in 
evidence, for in our considerable Guatemalan 
journeying I do not recall seeing a single sick 
woman excepting such as may have been beggars in 
the cities or dwelt there in homes. 

Considerable inquiry from reliable sources estab- 
lished that among the Indians there is little or no 
observance of marriage responsibilities, one prime 
reason for which is that the women (I am speaking 
of the Indians, who comprise perhaps eighty per 
cent, of Guatemala's population) are physically 
about as competent as the men, and are practi- 
cally all self-supporting. However, while there are 
few conventional marriages there is an abundance 
of children, and even on the road one sees troops 
of youngsters trailing after their mothers, while 
the number of women who evidently are about to 
become mothers is prodigious; it seems conserva- 
tive to say that more than half the women of the 
road bear evidence of this kind. The law of the 
"survival of the fittest" operates with special 



ANTIGUA 363 



rigour here, for the mothers give birth to their 
children at the very roadside, and within twenty- 
four hours thereafter are again jogging along on 
their journeys, with their offspring slung on their 
backs and, quite probably, a goodly burden bal- 
anced upon their heads. I was told of authentic 
instances (and there are thousands unrecorded) 
where Indian women dog-trotted with heavy 
burdens up to the very time of birth, and then were 
on the road again within a few hours. Of course 
only the sturdy babies survive, and only the sturdy 
mothers. 

Morality is not a drug on the market. In fact, 
so far as the great majority of the population is 
concerned, it is non-existent. A priest or devout 
churchman will lay the blame upon the fact that 
officials make a charge for performing the civil 
marriage ceremony, and as it is necessary to have 
this as well as a church service for a marriage to be 
legal, the poor people find it cheaper to get along 
without any ceremony, which they proceed to do, 
probably with extremely vicious results so far as 
the future of the race is concerned. 

One of the curious things about Guatemalan 
weddings is that for the civil ceremony the bride 



364 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

wears black. As soon as this is over she changes 
her garb to white and so clad is united by the 
bonds of the Catholic Church. No doubt the 
priests encourage this marriage mode, for they 
apparently miss no convenient opportunities to 
make governmental procedure unpopular. Nor 
can they be blamed greatly, for assuredly the ad- 
ministration has gone far out of its way to heap 
indignities and difficulties upon the Church. For 
instance, it is not permissible for a foreign priest 
to enter Guatemala, and as there are no induce- 
ments for native-born boys to study for the priest- 
hood, it seems but a matter of time before there 
will be no more in the land. 

''During the last two years fourteen priests 
have died in Guatemala," a priest told me. He 
was an American, an educated and a devout man, 
and supremely beloved and powerful among his 
conglomerate flock. "And only one new one has 
entered the work. In thirty years Guatemala will 
have no priests. " 

"Will that mean the end of the Church also?" 
I asked. 

"No. The Church will remain as long as the 
people have Latin blood in their veins. Even 



ANTIGUA 365 



without the priests to lead them they will gather 
in the churches and worship. Cabrera will never 
dare destroy the buildings. " 

Such is the opinion of a churchman. 

But to return to the Antigua road. Shortly 
before noon we were well up toward the summit of 
the 7500-feet divide that separates the old capital 
from the new, and stopped at the delightful inn 
of San Rafael for luncheon. It is a spotless little 
tarrying place close beside the road, shaded by a 
row of towering eucalyptus trees and surrounded 
by a terraced garden crowded with roses and other 
flowers. Just below, on the hillside, was a patch 
of luscious strawberries which contributed a wel- 
come addition to the chocolate con leche and the pan 
dulce of the repast. 

Here Senora was not Senora at all but Madame, 

''Espagnol? Moi? Mais non!" she shrilled 
decisively, explaining that she was ''Parisienne, '* 
and proud of it. 

The cooking, too, was of Paris, and character- 
istically delicious. And it may be added that the 
bill savoured of French thrift, for it hovered far 
above the customary modest Guatemalan figures. 
Also, Madame works a clever little ruse, which we 



366 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

did not appreciate until experienced wayfarers later 
explained it. She went to our cocker and gave him 
a bottle of beer; she always does that, for it 
encourages drivers to bring trade to her hostelry. 
But then she turned around and charged us for 
the beer; we paid, and wondered why the driver 
never exhibited any gratitude for our ''treat"! 

Between San Rafael and Antigua that driver 
found it necessary to fortify himself with "white 
eye" upon several occasions, to such an extent, 
in fact, that by the time we neared our destination 
he was a very reckless driver indeed. Once there, 
and safely out of the rolling vehicle, I gave him a 
generous pourboire, more because we were glad 
to be done with him than for any other reason. 

"God will repay you," said he, as soberly 
as an owl. I let him go without arguing the 
question. 

Antigua is triste. It is a community of sadness, 
a spectre of former magnificence. Only the ruined 
shell remains of what was once the capital and the 
city-beautiful of Central America. Hemmed in by 
mountains, neglected by progress, it basks there 
in the near-tropical sunshine, inertly dreaming of 
its romantic yesterday, at once the dreariest and 




13 
< 






ANTIGUA 367 



the most fascinatingly beautiful dead metropolis 
imaginable. 

Antigua was built in 1541. Previous to that 
there had been another city nearby, the original 
capital of Guatemala, which stood close to the 
base of what was then the mountain Hunapu. 
Without warning an earthquake came, the great 
crater of Hunapu was cleft in two, and down from 
it rushed the contents of the crater lake in a furious 
watery tornado which focused full upon the city, 
like some devilish battering-ram, and all but wiped 
it from the face of the earth. After that the 
mountain was called Agua, meaning the "Moun- 
tain of Water, " and it and its sister volcanoes were 
received into the Church and, so to speak, were 
put upon their good behaviour. Nevertheless, in 
1773, there followed another seismic cataclysm, 
and this time the new city which had been built 
to replace the water-destroyed one was shaken 
down. Fuego, the fire mountain, a neighbour of 
Agua's, was held responsible for this disaster, 
which was regarded as no less than a visitation 
of divine wrath. Three years later the modern 
Guatemala City was laid out some thirty miles 
from Antigua and well removed from the destruc- 



368 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

tive district. But even the capital of to-day feels 
the hand of earthquakes now and then and all the 
strength of the hugely thick walls of its dwellings 
and churches is required to withstand their force. 

The skeletons of nearly sixty churches bear 
witness to the former magnificence of Antigua. 
Their arches and domes, the beauty of their now- 
dilapidated facades, and the exquisite carving 
found here and there in the details that remain 
in huge interiors, hint something of the story of 
the city's brilliant past. Much of the material 
that built them was brought from Spain, and the 
expense of it and the tremendous amount of 
labour that went into the construction stands to- 
day as a striking reminder of the creative genius 
and persistence of the Spaniards. 

La Merced is the greatest and the best preserved 
of the churches, and a portion of it is used to-day 
for services. It stands near the centre of the town, 
whose buildings are all of one story and nearly 
all of them little more than shacks contrived out 
of the ruined walls of former buildings. Not far 
away is the main plaza, with stores surrounding it, 
and on market days a dense swarm of women 
vendors camped on it, with ragged sun-shields 




An Indian woman of Antigua shelling corn 




In the ruins of La Conception cows graze where padres were wont to 

ponder " 



ANTIGUA 369 



rigged up above them and everything that one 
might desire (or not desire) to eat spread out upon 
the ground before them, open to the inspection of 
all, including the scavenger dogs, unless the owner 
be watchful. The mercado of Antigua is a lively 
sight indeed. The Indians are more primitive, 
if anything, than are those nearer the capital, and 
their dress is far less brilliant in colour. For 
instance, all the men wear black upper garments, 
a fact which adds much to the subdued general 
appearance. 

The most beautiful of the church ruins is that 
of La Conception, on the outskirts of the city, 
nestling close to the sloping hillsides. We came 
to know it well, because it is now the property of 
an American who has transformed a portion of the 
magnificent old edifice into a dwelling while the 
rest of the great pile of buildings is given over to a 
nursery for coffee trees, storehouses, a candle fac- 
tory, and a general recreation place for the cows, 
horses, and hogs of the present-day owner. It is 
grotesque — almost sacrilegious — the sight of the 
once enchanting patios now thronged with live- 
stock. The cloisters accommodate hay and hides, 

instead of monks and priests ; pigs root about the 
24 



370 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

once sacred recesses of the monastery; cows chew 
their cuds reminiscently as they stand knee-deep 
in the battered fountain places about which schol- 
arly padres were wont to ponder. The candle 
factory occupies the shadowed depths of what was 
once a chapel, and the smoke from its weird char- 
coal fires filters skyward through an earthquake- 
made rift in the dome. A priest, it is said, owns 
the factory, and it appears that to be a priest and 
a candle manufacturer all at once is a profitable 
combination — far from a "combination in restraint 
of trade"! For it seems reasonable to suppose 
that if one sells candles, one not unnaturally 
would encourage one's parishioners to use a pro- 
digious lot of them in the important work of sav- 
ing the souls of those who have gone before. 

There are numerous quaint details about the 
ruins of La Recollection and the other churches. 
In many places one encounters examples of the 
original system of plumbing which was extremely 
intricate, the ''pipes" being a sort of terra-cotta 
tubing built into the massive walls. The water 
came from springs and reservoirs on adjacent hills, 
led down in aqueducts. The owner recently 
happened upon an underground passage and in 





^MliJM.'u: 




(y 



o 

a 

i ^ 

! ® 

0) 




3) a 

•a o 

o 



ANTIGUA 371 



exploring it discovered a veritable catacomb 
crowded with skulls and bones. There are many 
of these subterranean corridors beneath the 
city, this one having been traced for over a mile, 
leading to the central church of Merced. But 
most of them are destroyed or partially blocked. 

I remarked to the owner of La Conception that 
he doubtless had found many small relics about 
his domestic ruins, such as coins, bits of pottery, 
and the like. He laughed. 

''I had a chance to!" 

I requested enlightenment. 

"You see," he explained, ''this business of 
'discovering' relics is a real trade in Guatemala. 
At least the fine art of making them is, although 
the actual 'discovering' is left to some one like 
myself who is on the ground and can attend to that 
end handily. The other day one of the relic 
makers offered to go into partnership with me ; he 
was to supply the antiques and I was to ' discover ' 
and sell them. It was a money-making proposi- 
tion, but I did n't relish it. It is extremely easy 
to make pottery, for instance, that looks just like 
the stuff we occasionally dig out of ruins, and it 
costs next to nothing, while a tourist, once he has 



372 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

seen where it is supposed to have come from, will 
pay almost any price/' 

One result of this elucidating information was 
that we fought shy of Antigua antiques! 

One of the most unique of the churches still in 
use is that of San Francisco. The saint is sup- 
posed to be buried there, and those who have 
ailments come to be cured. The process is 
simplicity itself. The devout kneel before 
an iron grating which shuts off the resting place 
of the buried saint, having first placed offerings in 
the shape of miniature waxen images upon the 
grating. There they pray, setting forth their 
supplication to be cured of their affliction, and 
after rapping once upon the grating, run away 
and hide. The rapping is repeated and the 
hiding, after which the supplicant for miracu- 
lous aid returns and raps for the third time, and 
then kneels and listens. If an answering knock 
comes from within, the prayer will be granted. 

Antigua, and for that matter all of highland 
Guatemala, is a place of the public bath-tub — at 
least, of the wayside wash-tub. For the washing 
places are one of the most persistent features of 
the city and of the countryside. They are every- 




At work in a coffee paiio 




Praying at the miracle-working shrine of San Francisco 



ANTIGUA 373 



where, stone or concrete tubs always actively in 
use by the washerwomen, whose one and only soap 
seems to be lemons. With so much washing in 
progress, and so few clothes worn, the wonder of 
it is that everything and everybody is not 
spotlessly clean — which they are n't ! The wash- 
ing places usually have a pool in the centre, with 
small compartments walled off around three sides, 
each with a sloping place like a washboard, at 
which the women stand and scoop in water from 
the general pool. As cows and horses refresh 
themselves from the latter, and babies as often as 
not are scrubbed both there and in the ''tubs," it 
can be surmised that the process might not impress 
a Dutch housewife as altogether admirable. 

An afternoon drive from Antigua took us to the 
baths of San Lorenzo, one of the many hot springs 
in the vicinity. There is a little pool shielded by 
an abbreviated wall only eight feet high. Behind 
the spring a steep hillside rises. A well-beaten 
trail up that hill above the bath puzzled me until 
I chanced to see our dusky driver sneaking up it, 
with an anticipatory grin upon his face. After 
that while the ladies were enjoying their swims, 
I sat without the wall, and grimly kept the mozo 



374 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

from mounting to his accustomed hillside vantage 
point, whence the little pool was visible. He was 
a very disgusted mozo and intimated that I was 
interfering with a well-established prerogative. 

' ' El Menchen " was our inn, and no word regard- 
ing Antigua would be complete without a passing 
description of that diminutive paradise. 

In the first place, it was paradise for sixty-six 
cents a day and any one with a grain of business 
acumen must admit that paradise at such a figure 
is a notable bargain ! 

The inn is built about a patio whose only roof 
is the sky — a beautiful blue dome, as limpidly 
sunny in the early spring as the skies of southern 
Italy. The patio is the beginning and the end of 
all things in "El Menchen, " excepting only the 
bedrooms, which surround it on two sides, window- 
less caves floored with tiles, walled with the mas- 
siveness of a dungeon and opening directly upon 
the colonnade of the courtyard by a single door. 
We, who loved the fresh air, left our solitary 
bedroom door open during the night — a curiosity 
in a land where ventilation is an unrelished luxury 
— and no matter how early I might arise there was 
sure to be a group of inquisitive natives camped in 



ANTIGUA 375 



the patio after dawn, studying the phenomenon of 
a Gringo and his lady who not only would brave 
the night air but also seemed to care so little for 
privacy. Theirs was only a mild curiosity, not 
intentionally impertinent, and once understood 
was not specially embarrassing. In this connec- 
tion it is interesting to recall that one often sees 
Spaniards, even of the upper classes, pressing a 
handkerchief close to their mouth and nose as they 
hurry through the streets at night, doing all they 
can to keep the fresh air from being inhaled. As 
intimated, they have no use at all for ventilation 
and seal themselves in hot, stuffy rooms in a man- 
ner that is as revolting as it appears unhealthy 
to an Anglo-Saxon. That tuberculosis is prevalent 
is a matter not to be wondered at. 

The patio is tiled. One end of it contains a 
few uncomfortable chairs and much comfortable 
sunshine. The other end is devoted to a quaint 
jungle of flowers, trees, and shrubs. These are 
arranged in tiny flower beds laid out with concrete 
walls a few inches above the tiled floor. There 
is an elaborate lot of them, each of different size 
and shape; with their many curious forms they 
remind one of the cookies fashioned with various 



376 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

cutters in the days when cook and cookies were the 
most important items of Hfe. Winding between 
the beds is a labyrinth of tiny paths while overhead 
the bamboo trees and the others have twined 
themselves together into a woven mass. Hidden 
away in the heart of the miniature jungle is a 
hexagonal pool from which the mozo dips pails of 
water when he swashes the courtyard in the cool 
of the early morning. 

Breadfruit, aguacate (alligator pears), bananas, 
coffee, cocoa, and oranges are among the edibles 
growing in this marvellous patio, and in addition 
there are flowers of a dozen species, with the flam- 
ing poinsettia playing the brilliant part of the 
queen of the garden. 

The table was spread upon a balcony flanking 
the courtyard, with the senora herself serving. 
Whether or not the lady in question is the pro- 
prietress I don't know, but assuredly she is the 
moving spirit of the Menchen, and a capable one 
at that. She is Indian-Spanish and very massive; 
her black hair hangs down her back, and her feet 
are bare. However, the meals are all that could 
be desired in a sixty-six cent paradise, for one can 
revel in a saturnalia of alligator-pear salad, eat 




Guatemala is the land of the public washtub 




Children and clothes are washed indiscriminately 



ANTIGUA 377 



delicious undreamed-of fruits, and enjoy all the 
strange luxuries of an excellent native cuisine. 

But when it came to liquid refreshment ''El 
Menchen" did not shine. We had asked what 
wines the house had, and the presiding amazon 
replied that there were both red and white. 

''Let us see them," we asked, and they were 
produced. The bottles were satisfactory and bore 
imposing labels. 

"What vintage — what year?" 

"Oh, this year, of course," was the reply. It 
implied all the reproach a grocer might feel 
if you asked him when his fresh eggs had been 
laid. 

It developed that several concerns in Guatemala 
make a business of printing first- class labels 
which are pasted on extremely second-class wines. 
The beverages themselves are imported in casks, 
mostly poor stuff upon which low duties are 
paid, and then bott'ed and labelled to suit the 
taste of the purchaser. The method has the 
elements of simplicity, if nothing else, to recom- 
mend it. 

Despite its poor wines and sham waters "El 
Menchen" is a delightful tarrying place, tucked 



378 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

away from the stir of the world. The climate is 
idyllic, the scenic charm endless, and the human 
life of to-day as picturesque as are the ruins of the 
old city with its tragic past. 




CHAPTER XIX 

To tHe Top of Central A.inerica 

]HE loftiest of the mountains that 
hem in Antigua is Acatenango. Its 
sister peaks are Agua and Fuego, 
the dread water and fire mountains, 
both volcanic, like itself, and both with destructive 
histories. 

Agua is comparatively close at hand, and is 
easily reached and climbed on mule-back, if 
desired, over a pleasant and beautiful trail, the 
entire excursion being made comfortably in thirty- 
six hours. It is a delightful outing and well worth 
taking. However, many scale Agua; it is too 
easy and too ordinary an undertaking to hold 
special charm for one with any mountaineering 
experience and its resulting zest for the uncertain- 
ties of the unexplored. 

So we set our hearts on Acatenango. Those with 
love of the high places of the earth will understand 
when I say that the more difficult the trip was 

379 



38o SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

represented to us, the more we wished to take it. 
For in this respect even casual mountaineering 
is a sort of epitome of human frailty: a man and 
a mountain are like a child and a star — the more 
remote the prize, the more is it desired. 

We were told that Acatenango was the highest 
peak in all Central America, a statement which 
is perhaps open to argument, at least by a few 
hundred feet, its rivals in altitude being Tajumulco 
and Tacana. But no records worthy of the name 
exist, and there is no reason to believe that 
Acatenango is not what the Antiguaites claim, the 
**Top of Central America." Its ultimate crater 
peak stands close to fourteen thousand feet, if 
not more, above the oceans, making it a rival of 
Whitney in California and Tacoma- Rainier in 
Washington, our northern contenders for the 
laurels of loftiness. 

** Only half a dozen white men have climbed it, " 
the Americans at Antigua told us, and when it 
became evident to them that my wife as well as 
myself contemplated the trip, they threw up their 
hands in holy horror. 

Nevertheless, we started. Not only that, we 
finished — at the "Top of Central America. " And 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 381 

as usual in such cases, the ''insurmountable dififi- 
culties" were found to have existed chiefly in the 
minds of our advisers, whose tastes ran below the 
ten- thousand-foot contour line. But they were 
very good to us, were those pessimists, and aided 
whole-heartedly in arranging for saddle animals 
and our entertainment at "La Solidad, " the finca 
of a German-American planter which perches far 
up on the mountain's flanks at an altitude of 
8500 feet, and is credited with being the highest 
rancher in Guatemala. 

Our steeds were bony horses of diminutive size, 
and as I wore riding breeches and my wife sat 
her horse astride, we were the centre of a very 
pointed attention from the time of our first ap- 
pearance upon the streets of Antigua until the 
wooded mountain trail enveloped us some hours 
later. 

It was a thirty-mile ride to "La Solidad," and 
it proved an even more delightful scenic experience 
than the pleasant journey from Guatemala City 
to Antigua, and this despite the angular archi- 
tecture of my steed's backbone regions and the 
resulting effects upon my own, thanks to a blanket- 
less saddle of ungenerous proportion. First we 



382 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

ambled along broad and shaded avenues, bordered 
by cafetals, or coffee orchards. They are wonder- 
fully natty and aristocratic, are the cafetals, with 
regular rows of the clean-limbed trees, and here 
and there, at stated intervals, a shade tree, as the 
coffee treelets must be petted and pampered like 
the royal children they are. For this sunshade 
service many trees are impressed, the varieties 
chiefly seen being known locally as cuxm and 
gravaleOy while bananas, with their broad leaves, 
and even oranges, are interspersed among the 
coffee plants. These coffee trees, when we saw 
them, were radiant with red berries, so that at a 
distance the scarlet clusters among the dark glossy 
leaves were strikingly reminiscent of our northern 
holly berries. Some told us that January was not 
the time to see the Antigua country at its best; 
that in April the first spring rains would have 
cleansed the dust from the leaves and made the 
roadside a bower of blossoms. Perhaps. But 
even in January it is glorious, and no glutted 
epicure of visual delights but would admit that 
the poinsettia alone — the scarlet-leaved flower is 
everywhere — is enough brilliance for any wayside. 
After half a dozen miles of dusty voyaging came 




**We ambled along broad and shaded avenues, bordered by 
cafeiels, or coffee orchards " 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 383 

Duenas, a sunny, shabby little town, on the edge 
of the plain, with the hills rising close behind it. 
There we left the travelled highroad, and made off 
mountainward up an incessantly winding byway 
which was in reality a trail, although its boast of 
being a road was evidenced by the tracks of ox- 
carts. Those cumbersome carts go everywhere, 
road or no road, as the oxen will drag them up 
mountainsides or through jungles, if you give 
them enough time, for "time is the essence" of an 
ox-cart, as with some legal contracts. 

Three hamlets we passed at various altitudes, 
clinging to the hillsides or flattened out upon a 
sunny plateau, each with its cultivated fields lying 
about it, all checkerboarded with fences and some 
of them seemingly standing almost on edge upon 
the steep slopes. The hamlets were San Sebastian, 
Conception, and Calderas, and at the second named 
we came upon the final stages of a fiesta, whose 
remnants at least illustrated the persistence of the 
peon once he has started to enjoy himself. 

The first outward and visible sign of the cele- 
bration was a cluster of very intoxicated gentry, 
most of whom were asleep beside the trail, and all 
of them too far gone to be anything but filthy 



384 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

monuments to the damaging cumulative effects 
of ''white eye." Farther on was a more active 
group, whom the strenuous night had left intact 
for another day of revelry. And how they made 
the most of their playtime! It was noon and the 
sun beat down fierily, yet there in a little bare 
space before the door of a thatched 'dobe house half 
a dozen Indians danced — danced with an abandon 
that positively made one weary simply watching, 
for any one will admit that mid-day on a sun-baked 
hillside is not the place for even a tropical "Texas 
Tommy." And they had been at it all of the 
previous night and most of the forenoon. The 
usually giddy marimba music itself sounded 
wilted. Many of the revellers were adorned with 
outlandish costumes of bright cloths, with tails 
appended and horns fastened to their heads, and 
some of them with masks, comic and tragic; it 
was a veritable child's conception of a fancy- 
dress revel, ridiculous enough, yet with a queer 
uncanny flavour. 

We nooned in the shade of a balsam tree, and 
a few hours later came to the crest of the divide, 
the cumbre, probably close to ten thousand feet 
in altitude, after toiling up a surpassingly lovely 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 385 

stretch of trail, some of it sunny and winding 
through broad natural fields picturesque with 
great weed-like shrubs whose purple sprays 
brushed our shoulders as we rode upon our horses. 
Other stretches were shaded by groves of trees 
draped with grey moss and a multitude of orchids. 
For the most part those uplands are free of timber, 
and excepting the presence of rather ragged corn- 
fields where slopes are at all inviting, are chiefly 
nothing more than a rugged lot of natural meadows 
serried by barrancas and arroyas where the rains 
have swept the soil away. 

Beside the trail at the very summit was a 
wooden cross, partially protected by a tiny 
thatched roof and with a huge heap of faggots 
piled up before it, all but blocking the trail. The 
bones of some foully murdered traveller lie beneath 
the cross, a legend relates, and all those who use 
the trail now carry a stick or two gathered by the 
wayside up to the cumhre^ leaving it there before 
the cross as an offering to the spirit of the trail, 
much as Christian added other burdens to his own 
and by so doing lessened its weight. When the 
cargadors of the trail have amassed a sufficiently 
large pile of sticks it is fired, once or twice a year, 

25 



386 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

and no doubt the spirit of the wayside cross is 
propitiated and the labour of burden-bearing up 
the steep slopes appreciably lessened. 

On that outing we encountered other quaint 
souvenirs of the superstition that goes hand in 
hand with the religion of the land. For instance, 
one finds sacks of herbs tied about the necks of 
calves and colts, which is to ward off harm should 
women who are about to give birth to children 
look at them. When a hunter shoots at a coyote 
he first takes care to scratch the sign of the cross 
on the bullets, for otherwise the seven devils that 
inhabit the animal would be able to twist the gun 
barrel irreparably. 

A few miles farther on we came to "La Soli- 
dad." Well named ''The Solitary," the finca, 
in lonely isolation, perches far up on a westerly 
sloping hillside. Just above the rough farm 
buildings a cornfield merges into a mountain- 
side forest, whose lofty trees shut from view the 
peaks that lie above. A cluster of thatched na- 
tive huts, the homes of the labourers, is separated 
from the white quarters by the roadway, and below 
the valley opens out in a magnificent view of fields 
and forests, serrated by canons and barrancas 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 387 

cleft hither and yon, for the entire countryside is 
moulded in the wildest confusion. In the dis- 
tance, the skyline is rugged with the outlines of a 
dozen mountains, most imposing of them Santa 
Maria, which hurled forth death and destruction 
ten years ago. 

Beside its wonderful views ^'La Solidad" has 
many attractions, among which may be numbered 
strawberries and a ghost. The former grew pro- 
fusely even at the high altitude, in a garden 
wilderness sprawling about the house, and had for 
a pleasant complement much milk and cream, rare 
luxuries in this land where one gets milk only 
in cafe con leche (coffee with milk). The ghost 
was the relic of a murder committed on the ranch 
some months previously, for all the Indians were 
quite sure that the dead man's spirit stayed at 
"La Solidad," cavorting about at night time and 
doing all the disagreeable things it could contrive. 
A few days before our coming, the roof had been 
blown off the bam by a miniature tornado, and 
despite the extra work the accident gave them, the 
mozos were jubilant because they said that the 
ghost had gone along with the windstorm; it 
appears that this is a customary method for Guate- 



388 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

malan ghosts to bid their haunts adieu when set- 
ting forth for pastures new. 

Another murder incident came to my attention 
in this section. An Indian had killed a fellow in 
a brawl. Nothing was done about it until the 
murderer was so indiscreet as to enter a hospital 
for needed attention to wounds received in the 
melee. Once there it occurred to the authorities 
that a murderer in jail was a more profitable com- 
mercial asset than one at large, so to jail went 
the mozo. The matter was noticed because some 
days after the arrest the mother of the jailed 
murderer came to an American, offering to sell her 
cow. 

*'How much do you want?" 

**Four hundred pesos y'' she replied. That was 
a fair price. 

"But why do you want to sell?" the American 
persisted, as on a previous occasion the woman 
had refused to sell at any figure. 

"I need the money," was her laconic and un- 
consciously Yankee rejoinder. On being further 
pressed she explained that the four hundred 
pesos would buy the freedom of her son — which 
it did. 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 389 

Murder at about twenty-two dollars a head is 
cheap, any one will admit. The wonder of it is 
that with such a standard, and the near certainty 
that money can avert punishment for almost any 
offence, there is so little crime. American resi- 
dents say hold-ups are almost unknown and that 
few of them ever take the precaution of carrying 
firearms even when making remote trips. 

Shortly after three o'clock the morning after our 
arrival, we began our long day of climbing, the 
first and easiest stage by the uncertain light of 
a lantern. Manuel and Joaquin were our mozos, 
and the mules were "Mariposa," the butterfly, 
*'Mularanca, " the lame mule, and "Mulita, " the 
little mule. We left our bony steeds, ''Coyote" 
and ''Coralio, " at the finca, for the butterfly, 
lame, and little mules were better adapted to the 
work at hand than even the sure-footed nags. The 
young German finquero accompanied us. 

For several miles a rough trail led upward — it 
was as near perpendicular as a trail could be, and 
still stick in place! — and the mules scrambled 
along at a fearful angle, keeping their footing with 
characteristic (and blessed) mulishness. A dense 
forest made solid walls on either hand, and the 



390 SOUTHLAXD OF XORTH AMERICA 

n-.ozos with their machetes were kept busy cutting 
vines and fallen trees which impeded progress. 

At an altitude of about ten thousand feet this 
vine-clogged forest gave way to an open area of 
scrubby pines, the ground beneath them being 
carpeted ovly v,-ith brown bunch grass and doubly 
sHpper\- with 2:ine needles reinforced by the fact 
that it was frozen. As it was too m.uch even for 
the mules, we dismounted. However, we did not 
yet abandon the animals but utilised them as tow- 
boats, and a grand success they were m this capa- 
city, even though their usefulness lasted for but a 
short mile. ^Mules as mountain climbing motive 
power have their humours, as a unique sight if in 
no other way. A -fr.ozo led the finq_uero s mule, 
while he very literally tailed after himi. one hand 
twined in ^^lularanca's dorsal extremity, while ^ith 
the other he dragged Mariposa. I tagged after 
^Mariposa, and my wife brought up the rear of the 
comic t)rocession hanspin^ on to !Mulita. 

J. o o 

Having seen Mariposa's heels in action during 
a corral melee the previous evening at the jinca^ 
I had a hearty respect for their prowess and so 
instead of intimately clutching the tail of the 
roan vixen, and so perhaps aggravating those 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 391 

heels, I contrived to fasten a halter rope to the 
saddle of my animal and dragged along on it, 
with a good three feet of leeway from the expected 
kick. But even at that what with retaining my 
hold on my motive power, keeping my feet scramb- 
ling upward, and persuading Mulita to follow me 
by means of her lead rein, I had something of a 
task. Now, Mulita, although small, was stubborn 
inversely to her bulk, and when she took it into 
her head to stop (which was invariably at the 
identical moment when IMariposa was making a 
spurt) I found myself giving a first-class imitation 
of a medieval martyr on the rack. Picture it: 
one arm being yanked from its socket upward, 
while the other is pulled out by the dead weight 
of the sedate Mulita, who probably perches gravely 
upon a precarious ledge, placidly drinking in the 
scenic effects, at the precise moment when Mari- 
posa becomes filled with an enthusiastic resolve to 
get to the top in about three bounds ; and the vic- 
tim stands upon a frozen and slippery mountain- 
side, with an endless roll as a penalty for a lost 
foothold, and the altitude making his breath 
come in gasps and causing his feet to weigh a ton 
each, more or less. 



392 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

Perhaps a mile below the summit of Tres Her- 
manas, the "Three Sisters, " which is a lesser peak 
of Acatenango, we left the mules with Joaquin, the 
mozo, and thence scrambled upward over the bare 
volcanic-rock strewn slopes of what is evidently 
a long-dead crater cone. There was no danger in 
the climb, and the difficulties were chiefly those 
that can be overcome by perseverance; it was a 
matter of plugging away at it, the reward of the 
widespread view opening broader and broader as 
we neared the summit. Before noon we were on 
top. 

Tres Hermanas is a rounded peak almost bare 
of vegetation. It is, perhaps, some six hundred 
feet below Acatenango, from which it is separated 
by a deep rift, at whose bottom is an ugly looking 
crater, surrounded by masses of large rough rocks 
that seem to have been spumed forth in the utmost 
confusion at some not-far-distant time. The 
crater is really the result of an eruption, shot out 
from the side of Acatenango. There has been 
no lava flow for centuries, so far as amateur ob- 
servation could judge, but on the craggy slopes 
above the crater-pit jets of steam were visible even 
across the steep- walled valley. With Acatenango 




2 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 393 

and the recently destructive volcanoes of Guate- 
mala, there does not seem to have been at any 
modem date a flow of lava, the erupted materials 
being confined to ashes, dust, and rocks. When 
Santa Maria played havoc in 1902 the damage was 
done by earthquake and by the fall of ashes which 
buried neighbouring districts to a depth of many 
feet. 

On Tres Hermanas we lunched, chiefly from a 
cake of chocolate — which, like all native chocolate, 
was strongly flavoured with cinnamon — and a pot 
of coffee. For thanks to the luxury of having the 
mozo Manuel along, a bottle of water and a tiny 
flask of coffee essence had been packed to the 
summit. Any good climber will tell you that 
coffee should be tabooed in the high places — which 
it should; nevertheless, those who have been there 
will admit that good Guatemalan coffee, hot from 
the fire, is a nectar fit for the gods when consumed 
at an altitude of some fourteen thousand feet on a 
chill January morning, with the pride of Central 
America's coffee-land spread out far below one 
to the four points of the compass. 

It was a hard long climb up the flanks of Acate- 
nango's final cone, which we essayed after a brief 



394 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



rest on Tres Hermanas, where we left my wife and 
the mozo. So far as any records exist, not even 
an Indian woman had been to the top of Three 
Sisters (though the sturdy runners of the road 
would find it no great task) and certainly no white 
woman ever attempted the ascent before. So we 
left a record of the climb there, adding a feminine 
laurel to those of the Sierra Club of California, 
in whose company the ascent of Whitney had been 
made a few years previously. 

We skirted the cavernous cleft of the crater, 
which all but split Acatenango in twain on the side 
facing us, and made our way up that southern 
slope, now knee deep in soft volcanic cinders, and 
again encountering grave difficulties in securing 
any foothold at all where unsuspected fields of 
glassy rock were encountered just below the ashy 
covering. On the slopes overhanging the lateral 
crater, which were chaotic with crevasses and 
weird formations, we found beds of moss tucked 
away here and there where the steam kept them 
warm, these often disporting dainty little flowers, 
strange denizens of such chill heights. 

The top of Acatenango is a great open crater. 
It lies more like a saucer than a cup, with a fiat 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 395 

floor and regular curved sides, perhaps a third of 
a mile intervening between one wall and the other. 
There are no rocks — nothing to break the grey 
monotony of the cinders. At one place, the 
highest point of the saucer's edge, we rested and 
drank in the splendours of sky and cloud and 
land and sea that lay around and below us. 

Vagrant clouds, misty and chill and grey, sped 
down upon us from the north, for a few minutes 
obliterating every view and then hurtling away 
across the heavens, chased by the breeze and the 
sunshine, and trailing after them patches of shadow 
over the hills and valleys of the earth that seemed 
so far below. To the north were the serried peaks 
of Atitlan, Santa Maria, and the lesser volcanoes, 
with the little lake of Atitlan cuddling at the base 
of its namesake mountain; seemingly little, at 
least, from our distant viewpoint, although in 
reality some ten by thirty miles in extent. Nearer 
there rolled a great plain, yellow with a thousand 
wheat-fields and deep cut by barrancas. A dozen 
clusters of white dots indicated the villages scat- 
tered far and wide, with threads of white leading 
from one to another, the cart roads of the country, 
which took straight courses across the open lands 



396 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

for a league or two and then wound interminably 
up and down and over and around the billowing 
hills that here and there invaded the plateau 
levels, or dodged completely out of sight into the 
shadowed depths of unseen waterways. 

Westward, when the clouds permitted, we saw 
the Pacific, a band of gold or dazzling copper, vary- 
ing in tone and brilliancy as the angle of the sun's 
rays shifted. In from the edge of the gilded ocean 
stretched the lowlands of the coastal plain, hot, 
flat, and misty, until they billowed upward into 
the lesser foothills. Countless tiny squares of 
vivid green or yellow indicated the presence of 
sugar-cane fields, ripening or cut as the case might 
be; at the great distance — perhaps fifty miles — a 
thousand-acre patch resembled the square of some 
miniature chessboard. South-westerly lay the 
peak of Fuego, close at hand in actual distance, 
but, although really a part of Acatenango, sep- 
arated from our vantage point by a deep and for- 
bidding canon whose negotiation in itself seemed 
to promise a sturdy day's work. Fuego is a 
rugged rocky peak, with treacherous looking 
cliffs of disintegrating stone, and all in all appears 
as if it might offer a considerable problem for 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 397 

climbers. It is claimed that some native gentle- 
men have made its ascent. 

To the south and east there lay below us deep 
broad valleys, with Antigua and its out skirt 
hamlets seemingly close at hand, and the buildings 
of Guatemala City gleaming where the sunshine 
struck them, in a more distant valley, half a 
hundred miles away. Nearer, at the very base 
of Agua's symmetrical cone, were dimly visible 
the ruined remains of the first city, destroyed 372 
years ago when the ''Water Mountain's" crater 
was cleft in two and poured forth its deluge. As 
said before, Agua dominates nearly every Guate- 
malan view. But from Acatenango, for the first 
(and last) time, we actually were in a position to 
look down upon the beautiful mountain, so far as 
comparative physical altitudes were concerned, 
although from no place could the exquisite cone 
and its splendid setting be more appreciated. 
Agua rises with long, symmetrical lines straight 
into the blue sky, curving gracefully out and up 
from a pedestal of tawny brown fields. Its middle 
garment is the green forest, from whose tousled 
patches its mighty head emerges bare and clean- 
cut, often with a cap of clouds upon it, or at least 



398 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

with a cloud mantle about its shoulders through 
which the dark crest rises, doubly impressive 
for the contrast of the snowy white band below. 
Northward was Mexico ; we could see its moun- 
tains. Eastward lay the Atlantic, and to the west 
the Pacific. Southward stretched Central America 
— south far beyond the power of our eyes to see, 
over the intervening mountains and beneath the 
misty clouds that stifled the southern horizon. 
That was Central America, the land of six republics, 
the theatre of the most romantic and the most 
despicable chapters of history enacted upon the 
western hemisphere. From the top ol it all I 
looked down, and dreamed of following the puny 
isthmian strip all the way to Panama, where the 
Canal is cleaving the continents apart. And 
dreaming, I knew that the territory below us had 
slipped backward for two centuries, knew that it 
possessed all the elements of travellers' charm and 
possibility for economic development; knew — or 
thought I did — that the key to it all, the key that 
will open this Pandora's box of pleasures and 
responsibilities for the United States, will be turned 
when the ships from the Pacific and the Atlantic 
meet in Culebra Cut. 




At the top of Central America. The Author on the summit of Acatenango 




Indians masked and costumed at a fiesta 



TOP OF CENTRAL AMERICA 399 

"What then?" I asked the finquero, 

''Quien sahe?'' said he. He was thinking, I 
believe, of his dinner. 

At all events, the answer was appropriate 
enough. 

"Who knows?" 

Letting it go at that, I scribbled a record of our 
visit to the "Top of Central America" upon an 
envelope and put it in an empty film tin beneath a 
cairn. 

"If Manuel thinks you left that up here," 
laughed the finquero, "some day he '11 make the 
climb to get it." 

Which is undoubtedly true. The tin is worth, 
perhaps, five cents, and why should not a Guate- 
malan mozo labour a day for such a munificent 
reward? 




CHAPTER XX 

Yesterday, To-day, and To-morro^w 

OME years ago, the United States 
looked southward across the Carib- 
bean to Cuba, and saw there a sad 
state of affairs. With some blood- 
shed, much expense, and a vast deal of political 
pother. Uncle Sam extended a mailed fist to that 
tmhappy island and evicted the Spaniard, bag 
and baggage. The result of our initial martial 
excursion across seas ended Spain's rule in Cuba. 
But there was no annexation; ours was purely a 
war of sentiment, and we played the role of helpers 
of the helpless — played it to a crowded interna- 
tional house, the performance receiving rather 
more applause than hisses. Incidentally, the re- 
ward of our efforts, after expelling the Spaniards 
and rescuing the Cubans from themselves a second 
time, is to see the island to-day in none too happy 
a condition, if the statements of some recent 

writers are to be credited. 

400 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 401 

Later, we made another experiment beyond our 
borders, again at the expense of Spain. This time 
it was not a matter of sentiment and of freeing the 
oppressed, but of snatching a territorial water- 
melon while the owner was confined to his bed. 
It happens that the watermelon turned out a lemon 
(at least, many Americans think so), but the fact 
that the Philippines have proved themselves a 
troublesome pest does not alter the case. 

Cuba perhaps a failure and the Philippines a 
perpetual grief. That, briefly, is the substance of 
our attainments where we have essayed interven- 
tions or conquests abroad. 

Perhaps that is a rather depressing prelude to a 
brief chapter concerning the problems and re- 
sponsibilities of the Central American Southland. 
Nevertheless, the two experiences form the basic 
reason why our public regards with disfavour any 
sort of intervention on the part of the United 
States in foreign affairs. The antithesis of this 
national state of mind is the Monroe Doctrine. 
(For the text of the ''doctrine, " see Appendix B.) 
A complement to the Doctrine is the fact that some 
one of our Central American little brothers is 

almost always in need of a spanking. Which, in 
26 



402 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

effect, creates this contradiction: We don't want 
to interfere, and we probably never shall interfere 
unless as a last resort ; but we have gone on record 
as being the exclusive policeman for Central 
America and we fully realise that there is need of 
one. 

As this is being written, Mexico is in the throes 
of revolutionary turmoil. We may, or we may 
not, intervene. If we do, it will be to experience 
the usual fate of any one who interferes in a family 
fight, and we shall have all Mexico, united for once, 
about our ears. 

Senor Manuel Calero was the Mexican Minister 
at Washington last year. It is interesting to note 
a statement he made to the Mexican Senate a 
couple of weeks before the bubble of peace burst 
in Mexico City in February. 

"I lied to the American Government for ten 
months, telling it the Mexican revolution would be 
over in six weeks," said he. "The truth is that 
the department of finance has not painted the 
situation as it really is. We should speak the 
truth, though it destroy us. The truth is that 
the situation is desperate. " 

That was a frank exposition of Mexican affairs 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 403 

from the inside, made just before the world became 
aware that the situation was truly desperate in 
the land that a few years ago ousted Diaz. 

Is the situation desperate south of Mexico? 
No. Yet it is such that it merits national atten- 
tion, not so much because of any immediately 
impending difficulty as that it is essential for the 
United States once and for all to establish a plan 
of action as regards Central America, which, once 
established, must be carried out. 

The republics of Central America have pro- 
gressed indifferently well since 1 82 1. Before that 
date, the history of each was too largely merged 
in that of its neighbours and with Spain's to be 
worth considering here. From the travail of the 
third and fourth decades of the last century, the 
six republics emerged much as they are to-day, so 
far as geographic situation is concerned. But of 
them all only Costa Rica and Salvador have had 
any measure of stability or prosperity, and even 
these two, until a generation ago, have had troubles 
enough and to spare. 

To-day, Panama is orderly. There can be no- 
thing more serious than election-time riots there, 
thanks to the fact that the policing of the Isthmus 



404 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

is practically in American hands and the certainty 
that any disturbance threatening the peaceful 
operation of the Canal would be the signal for 
determined interference. Panama owes its na- 
tional existence to the United States, and also its 
comparative affluence, and it is further placed 
under the protecting wing of the Yankee eagle by 
our promise to maintain its political independence. 
The Panamanians have no great love for us, but 
under the circumstances they are far too wise ever 
to show this, at least officially. 

Costa Rica is stable, happy, and prosperous. 
Its government is not perfection — few are — but it 
is at least an actual republic. It is a proud little 
land, capable of caring for itself, if needs be, but 
in no wise bellicose, and never likely to originate 
international disturbance. 

Salvador is another republic worthy of the name. 
Yet even tiny Salvador is not free from internal 
anarchy and external dangers, as is evidenced by 
the murder of President Araujo in February, a 
tragedy that occurred since the chapters of this 
book concerning Salvador went to press. Dr. 
Araujo was a good president, apparently notable 
for his honesty and public interest. His assassin, 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 405 

the meagre news reports state, confessed that his 
act was the outgrowth of a plot hatched in Guate- 
mala Cit}^ whether with or without official backing 
is not implied. At all events, the assassination 
was followed by a hasty mobilisation of Salva- 
dorian forces along the Guatemalan boundary, 
as a precautionary measure, for Salvador heartily 
hates and fears its northern neighbour. 

Of Nicaragua one can speak with little optimism. 
The unhappy land has been the scene of disturb- 
ances without number; it is bankrupt, its men and 
its means are depleted. The prospect for better- 
ment is remote. The most that poor Nicaragua 
still has is a splendid array of natural resources — 
resotirces pitifully useless in a land whose people 
have retrograded beyond possessing power to 
utilise them. 

Hondin-as is as bad. Inhabited by half a 
million Indians and half-breeds, it makes no pre- 
tence of taking seriously its $125,000,000 debt, 
the heritage left to it by a half-century of govern- 
mental blood-sucking. Population and produc- 
tion are waning. Like Nicaragua, it is a sad sight. 

Last summer there was bloodshed in Nicaragua, 
and while no immediate reason is apparent just 



4o6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

now, seeing the future through the experiences of 
the past, one must beHeve that new revolutions 
are sure to occur. The pitiful part of it is that 
there seems to be no cure for it all — no medicine 
other than the application of a very big stick, and 
even that remedy is temporary unless some sort 
of permanent policeman's work is undertaken; 
and Heaven knows what a pest we should inherit 
if through any diplomatic contortions we found 
ourselves the guardian, in reality as well as in 
name, of Honduras and Nicaragua! 

Nearest to us is Guatemala. In a preceding 
chapter some attention was devoted to a passing 
description of affairs as they actually are in this 
giant among the pygmies. Guatemala is a land 
held in the iron hand of a dictator, Manuel Estrada 
Cabrera, the best that can be said of whose admin- 
istration is that it at least assures stability — as 
long as it lasts. There is considerable commercial 
and agricultural development in Guatemala; the 
country is by all odds the most favoured by nature 
in varied riches and pleasant climate; and there 
is a great pretence of progressiveness made by the 
administration. The army is powerful. It is no 
secret that Cabrera desires to extend his dominions 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 407 

over all Central America, nor is there any doubt 
that the scheme can never be fulfilled, either 
peaceably or by war. One who has travelled even 
casually through the republics, and talked with 
men of many sorts, soon sees that a united nation 
under Guatemala's whip hand, or, for that matter, 
under any rule, is a chimeric dream. They loathe 
the idea as thoroughly as they dread the possibility 
that the ultimate intention of the United States 
is to annex all of them — and against that they 
rave! 

Three months before Diaz of Mexico fell, few 
could have foreseen that catastrophe; Mexico 
respected Diaz, and Diaz was far more firmly 
intrenched than seems to be the case with Guate- 
mala and Cabrera. Some day, somehow, Cabrera 
will go. And then there will be chaos, and the 
United States, the self-appointed guardian of 
Central America, will face an imlovely situation. 
It is simply a matter of time. Undoubtedly to-day 
Cabrera is the prime trouble-maker of the South- 
land. But we are patient, and shall continue so 
to be, until, perhaps, a time comes when the Guate- 
malan dictator unwisely steps upon the official 
toes of some European nation. Then, in all 



4o8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



probability, Cabrera will try to hide behind the 
coat-tails of Uncle Sam. And what will Uncle 
Sam do? 

The entire Isthmus is strewn with appalling po- 
litical wrecks, and in them, little by little, have 
perished the wealth and the happiness of the unfor- 
tunate lands. We have had a grave responsibiHty 
in those wrecks, however, for there can be no doubt 
that our laissez-faire policy has done much to 
permit their occurrence. The Monroe Doctrine 
saddled us with an unpleasant duty, and has 
proved for the republics a perpetual franchise for 
deviltry, because, for the most part, we have 
dodged that duty. 

The Doctrine recently cropped up into a second 
childhood when the United States Senate, early 
in 1913, passed a resolution which, in effect, pro- 
hibits the settlement of any foreign power in a 
harbour or locality which would threaten the safety 
or communication of this country in time of war. 
The press of the Southland brand this as an "ex- 
tension of the Monroe Doctrine," and choose 
to believe it a step toward our acquisition of the 
territory south of us, a move, say they, which must 
be, and will be, fought desperately. Could they 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 409 



but realize that the very last thing the people of 
the United States desire to acquire is a handful 
of peppery tropical republics ! 

So to-day we are approaching the parting of the 
ways. If nothing more acute brings the situation 
to a head the Canal will cause a change, for its 
opening cannot but focus southward such a wide- 
spread popular interest that some better defined 
procedure than that of the past will become essen- 
tial. The Monroe Doctrine, propounded a cen- 
tury ago, must be remodelled, or the letter of its 
implied responsibilities should be lived up to. In 
the latter case, a hornet's nest would be stirred 
up at home and a worse one in Central America. 
The former would probably mean that some power 
from across the Atlantic might take a hand at 
playing policeman. And a constructive police- 
man — even one with a foreign inflection — would 
prove a boon for Central America. 

These are simply the random observations and 
conclusions of a casual North American traveller. 
There is nothing new in them, for the general senti- 
ment of the preceding paragraphs has been given 
to the public before by several able writers, all, 
perhaps, better qualified to speak their opinions 



410 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 

than one who makes no pretence of having made 
a thorough study of Central American affairs and 
their relation to our own. But to close even a 
book of travel sketches without a word or two 
upon the broader political outlook of the territory 
traversed, especially when its immediate future 
bears so intimate a relation with our own national 
policies, and the events of the day focus such a 
vital attention upon it, would be to end lamely, 
indeed. 

Ours was a journey for pleasure and interest — 
the unrivalled pleasure and interest of new sights 
in strange lands. It was rewarded by both, in full 
measure. Central America proved itself a rare 
terra incognita for a ramble off the beaten paths. 
To-day one grand good thing is its freedom from 
the guide-book tourist type, for strange as is the 
phenomenon, any one with the travel instincts of 
a turtle will admit that the mere mention "No 
tourists go there'' is enough to place "there" 
among the most desired spots in the universe, such 
is the selfishness of human nature once beyond 
its domestic doorstep! To-morrow the Canal 
will alter this; it will bring Central America 
infinitely closer, and by so doing will create a 



YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, TO-MORROW 411 

compelling fresh argument for the ''See America 
First" enthusiasts, for no small area in America 
or abroad is more thoroughly worth seeing than is 
Central America. 

So, you see, at heart this is an account of a trop- 
ical jaunt that left the jaunters vivid enthusiasts; 
and this, after all, is the only proper state of mind 
for a traveller to entertain, for it is so fiendishly 
easy to be out of sorts with things at home, without 
going to the ends of the world for further incentive 
to pessimism! 



APPENDIX A 

The following brief statistical information concerning the 
Central American countries is extracted verbatim from a handbook 
called Latin America prepared for the Pan-American Society of 
the United States by Frederic Brown of New York, and pub- 
lished in September, 19 12. 

COSTA RICA 

Its area is 23,000 square miles, divided into seven provinces. 
Its population is 379,000, of whom 3500 are native Indians. 
Immigration in 191 1 amounted to 11,200. 
The principal cities are: 



San Jos6 


33,000 


Heredia 


7,500 


Alajuela 


6,000 


Limon 


6,000 


Puntarenas 


5,000 


Cartago 


5,000 



Government 

Suffrage is granted all self-supporting citizens twenty-one years 
of age. 

The President is elected for a term of four years by an electoral 
college. 

The Legislature is composed of a Congress made up of forty- 
three deputies, one to each eight thousand inhabitants, and is 
chosen by the electoral college, which is itself chosen by direct 
vote of the people. 

The term of the Deputies is four years, one half retiring every 
two years, 

413 



414 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



There is a committee composed of five Deputies who represent 
Congress during its recess and advise the President on congres- 
sional matters. 

The President is assisted by Secretaries of the Interior, Police, 
Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Public Worship and Public 
Instruction, of War and Marine, and Finance, Commerce, and 
Public Works. 

There is a Supreme Court of Justice, two Courts of Appeal, 
and a Court of Cassation. 

Finance 

The revenue of the country amounted to about $4,025,000 
in the year 191 1- 19 12 and the expenditures amounted to about 
$4,000,000. 

The external debt is $12,000,000, regularly served by part of 
the customs receipts. 

Industry 

Costa Rica is principally an agricultural country, its chief 
products being coffee and bananas. All the tropical products 
are cultivated. There is a considerable production of rubber and 
cabinet woods and miscellaneous products. 

There are some gold mines in operation. 

The total imports in 19 10 were about $8,000,000 and the 
exports about $8,500,000. The United States occupies first 
place in both trades, with England second and Germany third. 

GUATEMALA 

Its area is about 48,000 square miles. 

Its population is about 1,800,000, nearly sixty per cent, of 
which are pure Indians. 

The capital and principal city is Guatemala, with about 125,- 
000 inhabitants. Other cities are: 

Quezaltenango 34,000 
Coban 26,000 

Totonicapam 25,000 



APPENDIX A 415 



Government 

The President is elected for a term of six years by direct vote. 

There is a National Assembly composed of sixty-nine members 
elected for four years by a direct vote of the people, and there 
is a Council of State of thirteen members elected in part by the 
National Assembly and in part chosen by the President. 

The President is assisted in his duties by Ministers of Foreign 
Affairs, Government and Justice, Finance and Public Instruction, 
and War. 

There is a Supreme Court, with six Courts of Appeal and 
twenty-six Courts of First Instance. 

Industry 

The principal products are coffee and bananas. The coffee 
production is largely in the hands of the Germans. 

The cultivation of sugar is increasing. 

Wheat and other products of the temperate zone are produced. 

The forests of Guatemala are rich in cabinet and dye woods, 
considerable quantities of which are sent to the United States. 

The public lands have been divided and are offered for sale, 
the maximum permitted to one person being about 1687 acres. 

The uncultivated lands may be given to immigrants for 
colonisation. 

Gold and silver are both mined in the republic and there are 
considerable deposits of salt. 

Imports and Exports 

The total exports of Guatemala were in 1909 about $10,000,000 
and the imports about $5,000,000. 

Finance 

The income of the country is principally derived from customs 
and a revenue tax on liquors and tobacco. 

The revenue of the country in 19 10 was about $3,500,000 and 
the expenditure about $2,900,000. 



4i6 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



The foreign debt amounts to about $3,700,000 and there is 
an obligation for outstanding paper currency of about $72,000,000 
paper. 

The paper currency of Guatemala is worth about six cents on 
the dollar. 

HONDURAS 



Its area is 46,000 square miles. 




Its population is 553,000, the i 


najor proportion of which con- 


sists of Indians and the balance of 


pure Spanish descent. 


The principal cities are: 




Tegucigalpa 


20,000 


Juticalpa 


15.000 


Nacaome 


12,000 


Esperanza 


1 1 ,000 


Santa Rosa 


10,000 


Choluteca 


10,000 


Government 



The President and Vice-President must be natives of Honduras 
and must be at least thirty years of age and are elected by direct 
vote for four years. 

The legislative power is given to a Chamber of Deputies com- 
posed of forty-two members elected by direct vote for a period 
of four years. 

There is a Supreme Court of three judges chosen by Congress 
for a period of four years, and there are also four Courts of 
Appeal. 

The President is assisted in his duties by a Cabinet composed of 
five Ministers, Foreign Relations, Government, Justice, and 
Public Instruction, War, Finance and Public Works, and Agri- 
culture. 

Industry 

Honduras is a rich country, but with little development. 

The principal product of the soil is bananas. 

Good tobacco is grown and its cultivation is increasing. 



APPENDIX A 417 



Cattle raising is extensively carried on. 

The forests yield large quantities of cabinet and dye woods. 

There is also considerable industry in the manufacture of 
panama hats. 

The country is very rich in mineral resources. 

Gold, platinum, silver, iron, and lead are found in practically 
every part of the republic. 

Commerce 

The total imports of the country in 191 1 amounted to about 
$2,600,000 and the exports to about $2,450,000. 

The United States occupies first place in the commerce of the 
country. 

Finance 

The revenue of the country is derived almost entirely from 

customs and liquor and tobacco monopolies. 

The revenue and expenditures about balance, amounting to 
about $3,800,000 yearly. 

The external debt of Honduras amounts.with arrears of interest, 
to about $114,000,000, the major portion of which amount is in 
dispute and has been subject to attempts at adjustment, but so 
far without success. 

The internal debt amounts to about $1,500,000. 

The principal currency in circulation is silver and copper. 

The little paper currency in the country is issued by the Bank 
of Honduras. 

Communications 

There are few roads, except one that connects the capital with 
the Pacific Coast ports. 

There are about sixty miles of public railroads and an equal 
amount of plantation roads ; several lines are projected. 

Army and Navy 

The regular army numbers at present about two thousand 
officers and men. 
27 



41 8 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



The effective reserve force of the country is calculated at about 
fifty thousand. 

There is a navy consisting of two armed cutters. 

The United States maintains consulates at Tegucigalpa and 
at Porto Cortes, with agencies at Bonaca, Roatan, Tela, Truxillo, 
San Pedro Sula, Amapala, San Juancito, and Ceiba. 

NICARAGUA 



Its area is 49,000 square miles. 




Its population is 600,000, the bulk of which is pure Indian. 


The principal cities are: 




Leon 


63,000 


Managua 


35.000 


Gra.nada 


17,000 


Matagalpa 


16,000 


Masaya 


15,000 


Jinotega 


12,000 


Government 



The President of the country must be twenty-five years of age 
and a citizen of Nicaragua or of one of the Central American 
republics, and is elected for four years by direct suffrage. 

The legislative power is given to a Congress consisting of 
thirty-six members, elected by direct vote for six years. 

The President is aided in his duties by a Cabinet composed of 
Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Public Instruction, Finance, Interior, 
Justice, War, Marine, and Public Works. 

There is a Supreme Court and three Courts of Appeal. 

Industry 

Nicaragua is essentially an agricultural country, the chief 
products being coffee, sugar, and bananas. A considerable 
amount of cabinet and dye woods, as well as rubber, is produced. 

Nicaragua is well adapted to cattle raising and there are about 
1 ,200,000 head of cattle in the republic. 



APPENDIX A 419 



There are several gold mines, bat the mineral industry is in 
its infancy. 

Commerce 

The total imports of the country in 1909 were $2,500,000 in 
gold and the exports about S3, 900, 000 gold. 

The unit of monetary value is a silver peso, which fluctuates 
in accordance with the price of silver, and there is also a large 
quantity of government paper money of a nominal value. 

Communications 

There are 171 miles of railway, not counting a small amount of 
private lines on the plantations. 

Army and Navy 

The effective permanent army is usually placed at about 
four thousand men. 

The war strength is calculated at about forty thousand men. 

The United States maintains consulates at Bluefields, Corinto, 
and Managua, with an agency at San Juan del Sur. 

SALVADOR 

The smallest and most densely populated of the American 
republics. 

Its area is 7,200 square miles. 

Its population is 1,100,000, of which a very large proportion 
is Indian or mestizo. 

There are about 200,000 foreigners in the republic. 

The principal cities are : 

San Salvador 60 000 

Santa Ana 48,000 

San Miguel 25,000 

San Vicente 15,000 

Sonsonate 15,000 



420 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



Government 

The President and Vice-President must be Salvadorians, at 
least thirty years of age, and are elected for a period of four years 
by direct vote of the nation. 

The legislative power is given to a National Assembly of 142 
Deputies, who must be at least twenty-five years of age and are 
elected by direct vote of the people. 

All Salvadorians over twenty-one years of age possess the right 
to vote. 

The President is assisted in his duties by a Ministry of four: 
Foreign Affairs, Justice and Worship and Public Instruction, 
War and Marine, Interior and Public Works, Education, Agricul- 
ture, and Finance. 

There is a Supreme Court which appoints the judges of first 
instance. All other judges are appointed by the National 
Assembly. 

Products 

Salvador is an agricultural country, its principal product being 
coffee. 

It also produces sugar, chocolate, and tobacco and other 
tropical produce. 

The government is endeavoring to encourage the growing of 
cotton and in the highlands efforts are being made to produce 
the wheat required for home consumption. 

There are known to be considerable quantities of mineral 
wealth but mining operations have not yet attained any consider- 
able importance. 

Imports and Exports 

In 19 10 the imports amounted to about $3,700,000 and the 

exports to about $7,300,000, in which coffee occupied first place. 
The United States occupies first place in both trades, England 
being second and France and Germany following. 



APPENDIX B 421 



Finance 

The principal money of the country is silver, having a value 
of about forty cents, fluctuating with the price of silver, 

A gold standard has been adopted and the banks of Salvador 
are now engaged in the work of adapting the country to the new 
standard. 

The outstanding foreign debt of the country in 19 10 was about 
$4,000,000. 

Communications 

There are 170 miles of railway in the country, with over 2000 
miles of good cart roads. 

Army and Navy 

, The immediate standing army of Salvador comprises six hund- 
red officers and twenty thousand men. 

The total number available for service having had military 
training is 3000 officers and 100,000 men. 

The United States maintains a Consul at the capital, San 
Salvador. 

APPENDIX B 
The Monroe Doctrine 

In 1823, just ninety years ago, the "Monroe Doctrine" was 
promulgated in the following recommendation, contained in 
President Monroe's annual message to Congress. 

"At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made 
through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power 
and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the 
United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotia- 
tion the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the 
north-west coast of this continent. A similar proposal had been 
made by his Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great 
Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government 



422 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



of the United States has been desirous by this friendly proceeding 
of manifesting the great value which they have invariably 
attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude 
to cultivate the best understanding with his government. In 
the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the 
arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been 
judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights 
and interests of the United States are involved, that the Amer- 
ican continents, by the free and independent condition which they 
have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered 
as subjects for future colonisation by any European powers. . . . 
"It was stated at the commencement of the last session that 
a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve 
the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared 
to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need 
scarcely be remarked that the result has been so far very dif- 
ferent from what was then anticipated. Of all events in that 
quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse 
and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious 
and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States 
cherish sentiments the most friendly in favour of the liberty and 
happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In 
the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves 
we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our 
policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or se- 
riously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for 
our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of 
necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must 
be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The 
political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this 
respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that 
which exists in their respective governments; and to the defence 
of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood 
and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlight- 
ened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled 
felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to 
candour and to the amicable relations existing between the United 



APPENDIX B 423 



States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any 
attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the 
existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have 
not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments 
who have declared their independence and maintained it, and 
whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just 
principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition 
for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other 
manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light 
than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the 
United States. In the war between those new governments and 
Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, 
and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, pro- 
vided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the com- 
petent authorities of this government, shall make a corresponding 
change on the part of the United States indispensable to their 
security. 

"The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe is 
still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be 
adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it 
proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have" 
interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To what 
extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle i 
is a question in which all independent powers whose governments 
differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and 
surely none more so than the United States. 

"Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early 
stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the 
globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere 
in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the 
government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to 
cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations 
by a frank, firm and manly policy, meeting, in all instances, the 
just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. 
But in regard to these continents circumstances are eminently 
and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied 



424 SOUTHLAND OF NORTH AMERICA 



powers should extend their political system to any portion of 
either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; 
nor can any one believe that our southern brethren, if left to 
themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally 
impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition 
in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative 
strength and resources of Spain and those new governments, and 
their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can 
never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United 
States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other 
powers will pursue the same course. " 

APPENDIX C 
BibliograpKx 

The following books, written in English, pertain to Central 
America, and may be of interest to readers of this volume. It 
is believed all are in print and obtainable; a far fuller list exists, 
and can be secured at any metropolitan library. The very 
extensive bibliography of Panama is omitted here. 

Bury, Herbert, A Bishop amongst Bananas. 1912. (Includes 

Panama, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.) 
BuTTERWORTH, Hezekiah, Traveller Tales of the Pan-American 

Countries. Central America. 19 10. 
Palmer, Frederick, Central America and Its Problems. 19 10. 
Waleffe , Maurice de , The Fair Land of Central A merica. 1 9 1 1 . 
Enock, Reginald, The Great Pacific Coast. 1910. 
Winter, Nevin O., Guatemala and Her People of To-day. 1909. 
Martin, Percy F., Salvador of the Twentieth Century. 191 1. 
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of the Pacific States. 1883. 
Brigham, Wm. T., Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal. 1887. 
Charles, Cecil, Honduras, the Land of Great Depths. 1890. 
Davis, R. H., Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central America, 

1896. 



APPENDIX C 425 



Fisher, Horace N., Ethnology and Commercial Importance of 

Latin America and the West Indies. 1909. 
Keane, a. H., Compendium of Geography of Central America 

and West Indies. 1901. 
Maudsley, a. C. and A. P., Glimpse at Guatemala. 1899. 
Vincent, Frank, In and Out of Central America. 1896. 
MoRLAN, A. P., A Hoosier in Honduras. 1897. 

The Pan-American Union, at Washington, D. C, publishes 
several handbooks upon Central American republics, and has 
complete lists of publications in all languages dealing with Latin- 
American history and description. The monthly magazine of the 
Union, The Bulletin, contains interesting and timely material. 

Other North American organisations especially interested in 
Latin America are the Pan-American Society of the United 
States and the Hispanic Society, both situated in New York. 
The latter has a very comprehensive library. 




15 



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m 



SKETCH MAP OF 

CENTRAL AMERICA 

TO ACCO^ 
"the southland or north AMERICA" 



ear) 



South America 
To-day 

A Study of Conditions Social, Political, and 
Commercial, in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil 



By Georges Clemenceau 

Formerly Prime Minister of France 

Svo. $2.00 net (By mail, $2.20) 

As the work of one of the most brilliant of European 
politicians and writers the book is likely to command wide 
attention. The author was afforded exceptional op- 
portunities to study at first hand their institutions and 
systems of government. He came in touch with many of 
the presidents of these republics, with cabinet officers 
and officials of rank ; he visited their prisons, their asylums, 
and their educational institutions ; he got an insight into 
their industries both in city and country. His comments 
are based on full knowledge and are vitalized by stimu- 
lating contrasts and comparisons with Old World practices. 

" He provides the general reader with a remarkably 
graphic picture of scenic attractions, and those particularly 
interested in sociology, anthropology, ethnology, botany, 
and zoology will find their interests studied here." — The 
Independent, 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York London 



** Notable among works of exploration and 
discovery. ' '— The Outlook. 



In the Amazon Jungle 

Adventures in a Remote Part of the Upper 

Amazon River, Including a Sojourn 

among the Cannibal Indians 

^y Algot Lange 

With an Introduction by 

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh 

"A more remarkable narrative of strange experiences 
and perilous adventures would be hard to find among the 

books of many years His training as a student of 

natural history and botany has stood him in good stead, 
for while his remarkable book is in no sense a learned 
disquisition, its narrative is made more valuable by the 
scientific basis of its observation of wild life and plants. 
This feature is a fortunate aid to its entire credibility, for 
here are stories which might be regarded as were those 
of Marco Polo." — Springfield Republican, 

**A description more wonderful than the work of 
Paul du Chaiilu, and holds the reader as intensely as the 
stirring narrative of Stanley's adventures in Africa." 

San Francisco Chronicle. 

S". With 86 Illustrations from Original Photc 

graphs by the .Author. $2, SO net, 

{By mail, $2,75) 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York London 



Little Cities of Italy 

By Andre Maurel 

Translated by Helen Gerard 
Author of ** The Story of the Thirteen Colonies " 

2 vols. Sold Separately. Beautifully Illustrated. 
Each $2.50 net. By mail, $2.70 

First Series. With 32 Illustrations 

Florence — San Qimignano — Monte Oliveto — 

Pisa — Lucca — Prato — Pistoia — Arezzo — Lecco 

— Bergamo — Brescia — Verona — Vicenza — 

Padua — Mantua — Arqua 

Second Series. With 40 Illustrations 

Milan — Pa via — Piacenza — Parma — Modena — 

Bologna — Ferrara — Ravenna — Pesaro — 

Rimini — Urbino — Perugia — Assist — • 

Spello — Montefalco — Spoleto — 

Orvieto — ^Viterbo, etc. 

M. Maurel has wandered from town to town, painting 
in vivid colors his impressions of their historic and artis- 
tic aspects, showing with keen insight how closely allied 
are these, what each owes to the other, and how indebted 
is the present to both. To the lover of Italy the book 
will afford fresh delight, and to those whose Italy consists 
only of Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples these little 
sketches will open new and charming fields of interest. 

Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 



Trails and Tramps 

in Alaska and 

Newfoundland 

3j^ William S. Thomas 

Author of " Hunting Big Game with Gun and Kodak ** 

/2^ With ISO Illustrations, $2,50 net 
By mail, $2.75 

The author gives an account not only of trips 
along the coast and into the interior of Alaska 
and Newfoundland, but of excursions to, and 
nature studies in, many other little-visited parts 
of the American continent. There are many 
interesting photographs of scenic wonders and 
animal life remote from civilization, observed 
under peculiar circumstances and at opportune 
moments. There are accounts of bear and wild- 
sheep hunting, raccoon hunting and rabbit hunt- 
ing with ferrets ; but equally interesting are the 
accounts of the game that the author bagged 
with his camera and the description of the habits 
and the life of animals and of aborigines whom 
the author ran across in remote parts. Camp 
yarns and adventure season the pages of this 
interesting volume of nature studies. 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York London 






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